Feds charge woman with giving fentanyl to her granddaughter — who died of overdose

70-year-old defendant also is facing fraud charges involving a Bay Area rapper

SAN FRANCISCO >> An Antioch woman who already was facing fraud charges involving a Bay Area rapper has been arrested for allegedly giving her granddaughter fentanyl that the young woman fatally overdosed from two days later, court records show.

Susan Arreola-Martin, 70, was charged this week with distribution of fentanyl, a federal offense that carries 20 years in prison. She has been in Santa Rita Jail since her April 16 arrest, four days after her 21-year-old granddaughter died from an apparent fentanyl overdose.

It is the latest example of the Northern California U.S. Attorney’s Office filing serious criminal charges against someone who has been identified as the supplier behind a fatal overdose. Since 2019, the office has aggressively prosecuted fentanyl sellers, charging major suppliers as well as street-level dealers who sell by the dose. Fatal overdoses show no signs of slowing; more than 700 people died of fentanyl overdoses in San Francisco alone last year.

According to the criminal complaint, ArreolaMartin and her granddaughter used methamphetamine together in Antioch on April 12, and Arreola-Martin gave the young woman a small baggie of fentanyl to take home with her. Two days later, the 21-year-old — referred to in court records only by the initials KVH — was found unresponsive in the bedroom of her Martinez home and declared dead a few hours later.

In February 2020, Arreola-Martin was charged with conspiracy for allegedly playing a role in a multimillion-dollar identity theft ring. The lead defendant in that still-pending case is Amir Rashad, a Bay Area rapper who uses the stage name Kafani and recorded several hit records in the early 2000s.

At the time of her granddaughter’s death, ArreolaMartin

was on pretrial release in the fraud case. That is typical in federal cases that don’t involve allegations of violence or significant risk that defendant will flee the area; federal judges use danger to the community and flight risk as their guiding factors when deciding whether to keep a defendant in jail.

In that case, ArreolaMartin allegedly impersonated at least two people, including an Orinda woman, in an attempt to obtain fraudulent loans in the victims’ names. The criminal complaint alleges that she was brought into the conspiracy after Rashad allegedly told another co-conspirator that “we need a granny” to pull off one of the planned identity thefts.

The criminal complaint in the fentanyl case alleges that Arreola-Martin was linked to KVH’s death based upon the young woman’s diary entries, as well as a mutual friend — referred to only by the initials G.J. — who reportedly told police she watched them use methamphetamine and discuss the dangers of fentanyl two days earlier.

“Gracie and I decided to get high today. I think we both tried fetynol (sic) for the first time. We got it from Nana. She’s also the plug for crystal I found out,” one diary entry said, according to the complaint. Authorities believe “Nana” was a reference to Arreola-Martin.

At Arreola-Martin’s first court appearance Tuesday afternoon, she was read her rights by appointed Bay Area defense attorney Kenneth Wine, who already represents her in the fraud case. Wine said that for now he won’t contest the prosecution’s motion to keep Arreola-Martin in jail, but plans to revisit the issue if he finds a drug rehab facility that will accept her.

“She’s obviously got a drug problem that she needs to work on,” Wine said.