TAMPA, Fla. — An Apollo Beach man was convicted in federal court after prosecutors said he sold fentanyl to a woman who later overdosed and drowned in a bathtub.
Ludwin Borgen, 49, was found guilty by a federal jury of distribution of fentanyl resulting in death, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
He now faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 20 years in prison and could receive up to life when he is sentenced June 16.
Federal prosecutors said evidence at trial showed Borgen had supplied fentanyl to the victim multiple times before her death in March 2022.
According to court testimony, the victim contacted Borgen the night before to arrange a purchase and met him the following day at a pharmacy, where she bought fentanyl.
Investigators said she later returned to a residence where she was staying with a friend and injected the drug while soaking in a bathtub.
Prosecutors said she became intoxicated, slipped beneath the water and drowned.
A friend later found her body in the tub with her head submerged and a syringe floating nearby.
Toxicology results showed the woman had about 10 times the therapeutic concentration of fentanyl in her system, a level investigators said was consistent with overdose deaths.
The Hillsborough County Sheriff’s Office said detectives specializing in overdose investigations traced the drug sale back to Borgen.
Authorities later used the victim’s phone to arrange another meeting, prosecutors said, and Borgen arrived expecting to complete another fentanyl sale.
Investigators arrested him at that meeting.
A search of his vehicle turned up fentanyl, syringes, baggies and a scale, according to prosecutors.
The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Hillsborough sheriff’s office, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement and the Hillsborough County Medical Examiner’s Office.
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