Ex-Sailors Plead Guilty in Fentanyl Case
PHOTO CAPTION: Seaman Bailey Szramowski operates equipment aboard USS Abraham Lincoln during a replenishment-at-sea in the Philippine Sea on June 6, 2022. Szramowski pleaded guilty Sept. 14, 2026, in a federal fentanyl case involving Navy service members. U.S. Navy photo by MC3 Clayton A. Wren.
Two former U.S. Navy sailors have pleaded guilty in a federal drug case involving counterfeit oxycodone pills containing fentanyl that were sold to active-duty service members, including sailors connected to the USS Abraham Lincoln.
Bailey A. Szramowski, 29, and Johnnese H. Poomaihealani, 25, entered guilty pleas Sept. 14 in federal court in San Diego to conspiracy to distribute controlled substances.
According to federal prosecutors, Szramowski provided an active-duty sailor assigned to the USS Abraham Lincoln with 10 pills that were represented as oxycodone in December 2022.
The sailor, identified in court records only by the initials A.N., later overdosed and died in January 2023. Authorities said the cause of death was acute fentanyl intoxication.
What happened next became a central part of the federal case.
Prosecutors say that despite knowing A.N. had died, Szramowski sold three more purported oxycodone pills to another sailor just 10 days later.
That sailor, identified as C.L., was taken to a hospital after a suspected overdose and survived.
Federal prosecutors say Szramowski and Poomaihealani then called C.L. and instructed him to tell investigators that the pills had come from the sailor who died rather than from Szramowski.
The Justice Department said the counterfeit pills were sold to active-duty Navy service members stationed in San Diego, including during deployments.
Szramowski and Poomaihealani are now scheduled to be sentenced Dec. 11 by U.S. District Judge Ruth Bermudez Montenegro.
Under the charges listed by federal prosecutors, Szramowski faces a statutory sentencing range of five to 40 years in prison and a potential fine of up to $5 million. Poomaihealani faces up to 20 years in prison and a potential fine of up to $1 million.
Those are statutory penalties, not predetermined sentences. The final sentences will be imposed by the federal court.
The investigation was led by Homeland Security Investigations in San Diego and involved the Naval Criminal Investigative Service and California Department of Justice.
The guilty pleas provide a new resolution in a case stemming from drug sales more than three years ago — including the death of one sailor, the overdose of another, and prosecutors’ allegation that additional pills were sold even after Szramowski knew one of his fellow service members had died.
(Source: OAF Nation)
