‘My whole delusion came crashing down’: Stanford grad sent to prison for running meth, cocaine ring that offered puppy time

SAN FRANCISCO A man and woman have been sentenced to four years in federal prison for running a drug delivery operation that offered clients perks like time with cute puppies court records show The alleged leader of the drug ring Natalie Marie Gonzalez is a Stanford alumni who ran the illicit business with all the care attentiveness to detail and intellectual curiosity that the top university is known for Prosecutors say she inquired foreseen middlemen drug dealers to their customer base not wanting to contribute to drug addiction held customers to a minimum and hid drug transactions from scrutiny with use of cryptocurrency During the scrutiny the Drug Enforcement Administration learned that one of Gonzalez s cocaine suppliers had overdosed on fentanyl while staying in a hotel room that had been paid for with Gonzalez s credit card according to a prosecution sentencing memo In an interview with drug agents her boyfriend reportedly blamed a cartel and a bait and switch technique whereby fentanyl had been substituted for cocaine Gonzalez was sentenced on Friday to months in federal prison Last week a co-defendant Frederick Gaestel was sentenced to months behind bars Two others Rory Ricky and Mathew Sestak have still-pending federal charges related to the same ring government announced According to a news release by the Department of Justice drug agents seized a kilogram of fentanyl roughly seven kilograms of cocaine orange fake Adderall pills containing methamphetamine and ketamine during a raid of a Menlo Park stash house associated with the ring The analysis was aided by a confidential informant one of Gonzalez s former friends who got busted according to court records In a defense sentencing memo Gonzalez s attorney describes her as a gifted and enterprising young woman who acquired a B S degree in civil and environmental engineering and architectural design from Stanford in and was involved in other entrepreneurial events beyond her drug business Prosecutors too described Gonzalez as full of foreseen during her upbringing in Colorado noting she received through a youth grant venture for violin lessons a trip to Peru and dance instructions David Rizk the defense lawyer representing Gonzalez declared she was brought up by two hippies who raised their family in the mountains valued accomplishment more than wealth and ate organic food before it was cool But he added they exhibited certain eccentricities that affected Gonzalez s life trajectory In a letter to the court Gonzalez recounted how her dad would sometimes sip a cocktail during road trips but take his hands off the wheel during sips so he could jokingly insist he wasn t drinking and driving At Stanford she continued to receive financial aid and lived in a trainee co-op where her alternative lifestyle was embraced and she felt at home Recreational drug use among the college students was common which reinforced her view that even illegal drugs could be used responsibly and that a few substances like ketamine psilocybin and LSD offered promising benefits that far exceeded those of social-accepted drugs like alcohol Rizk wrote She presumed that adults ought to have the opportunity to explore altered states provided doing so did not harm others These qualities were noted by drug agents in who stated in court filings that Gonzalez in fact voiced concern over spreading addiction while selling counterfeit Adderall pills that contained methamphetamine We serve a lot of students and young professionals who use them for work but I m curious what you re sic understanding of the use for your clients she allegedly required an undercover agent who explained he wished to sell the pills to college kids my post grad friends Thank you for sharing I more just want to make sure that we are sharing responsibility rather than contributing to addictions that are damaging people Gonzalez allegedly replied Then she arranged for the agent to receive meth pills according to prosecutors In a letter to the court Gonzalez reflected on all of this her upbringing time at Stanford hopes and dreams for the future and how she evolved from taking interest in recreational drugs like LSD to addictive substances like methamphetamine She was in deep denial about the harm she was causing she wrote and it continued even after the fatal overdose in the Southern California hotel I received praise and validation from people I respected and I let that reinforce my delusion that I was doing something positive she wrote before recounting the overdose circumstance After that Gonzalez added My reality had become so distorted that instead of stopping everything right then the case turned into further justification for what I was doing I clung even harder to the idea that my careful testing somehow made my actions acceptable or was really saving lives After her arrest she wrote my whole delusion came crashing down Looking back I see that I was personally using drugs to dissociate from pain insecurity and grief while telling myself I was helping others heal That contradiction is painful to sit with now she wrote I don t share this to excuse what I did but to show that I have confronted it honestly What once felt justifiable now feels deeply misguided