Police have identified a Salvadoran illegal migrant, who was ordered deported in 2024, as the suspected drug dealer connected to overdoses at a Virginia high school last May.
The suspect, 31-year-old Isaac Melendez-Carranza, is accused of selling fentanyl to students at Park View High School in Sterling, Va., and had 100 fentanyl pills at his home when officers executed a search warrant, authorities said.
The Loudoun County Sheriff’s Office arrested Melendez-Carranza on Thursday, Aug. 20 and charged him with possession with intent to manufacture, sell or distribute, and possession with intent to distribute a controlled substance within 1,000 feet of a school, which are felonies in Virginia.
This illegal alien was arrested for selling FENTANYL to STUDENTS in Sanctuary Spanberger’s Virginia.
Isaac Melendez‑Carranza, from El Salvador, was issued a final order of removal in 2024 but the Biden Administration took NO ACTION against him.
ICE will work to ensure this… https://t.co/0IlYuibmTt pic.twitter.com/oxNrnKpLtW
— Homeland Security (@DHSgov) August 25, 2026
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement also lodged a detainer for Melendez-Carranza, who reportedly entered the country illegally a decade ago.
Loudoun County Sheriff Mike Chapman said deputies found 100 fentanyl pills when they searched his home and several thousand dollars in cash, NBC4 Washington reported. He is being held without bond at the Loudoun County Adult Detention Center.
“It looked to me like he was getting ready to do another delivery to somebody,” Chapman told NCB4 in a news clip shared by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
Chapman said Melendez-Carranza will be transferred to federal immigration authorities after his local criminal charges are resolved.
DHS officials confirmed to news outlets he was caught and released at the Texas border during the Obama administration in 2016 and was ordered deported two years ago, DHS officials said.
“This illegal alien was arrested for selling FENTANYL to STUDENTS in Sanctuary Spanberger’s Virginia,” DHS shared in a post on X. “Isaac Melendez‑Carranza, from El Salvador, was issued a final order of removal in 2024 but the Biden Administration took NO ACTION against him. ICE will work to ensure this criminal is REMOVED from our nation.”
The Loudon County Sheriff’s Office launched an investigation following two overdoses at the high school last May. The students were treated with Narcan and survived.
The upscale Loudoun County, Virginia, has the highest median household income in the United States due to its proximity to Washington, D.C. Park View High School is located near Claude Moore Park, with trails and natural areas, a sports complex and recreation center.
The school also had series of eight student overdoses in a three-week period in 2023. Melendez-Carranza has not been charged in connection with those incidents, authorities said.
DHS records indicate he was arrested by U.S. Border Patrol on May 3, 2016, near Hebbronville, Texas, after he illegally crossed via the Rio Grande River. He was released on bond on July 13, 2016, and remained in the country.
Chapman didn’t shy away from Melendez-Carranza’s illegal immigration status, adding “had that not happened maybe this would have never happened.”
An immigration judge issued Melendez-Carranza a final order of removal on July 18, 2024. Biden’s DHS encountered him weeks later in Sterling, Va., in August 2024, but took no enforcement action against him.
The sheriff’s office said more arrests are possible, but there was no timetable and the investigation is ongoing, FOX 5 DC reported.
According to court documents, Melendez‑Carranza claimed he was selling to support his own use.
Chapman said the goal of investigators is to stop street-level dealers as well as working “your way up to see who you can get at the top of the chain.” He indicated the suspect is a “pretty significant player here in the area and the fact that it’s going to the students here is really alarming,” per FOX 5 DC.
Loudoun County also shares its eastern border with Fairfax County, Virginia, which made national news last spring after another illegal immigrant was arrested for groping students in the hallways of Fairfax High School.
Israel Flores Ortiz, a 19-year-old illegal immigrant from El Salvador, was a student at the school and accused of assaulting 13 girls. Some of the victims were as young as 13 years old, and he grabbed their private areas during passing periods at the school.
He was convicted in April of nine counts of assault and battery for groping female students. However, he set to be released from jail in two weeks, on Sept. 3, per WJLA 7News.
Ortiz illegally crossed the southern border in 2024 and was released into the country during the Biden administration.
Although he faced up to nine years behind bars, a judge sentenced him to 360 days in jail with two years of probation. The judge reduced his time behind bars to about 140 days after giving credit for time already served.
ICE also issued an immigration detainer against Ortiz. The Fairfax County Sheriff’s Office hasn’t said if they will honor the detainer and release him to ICE, 7News reported.
Fairfax County Public Schools also declined to tell 7News if the district would allow him to return to school for his senior year if he is released into the community.
