Burgaw man sentenced for possessing counterfeit pills laced with fentanyl

Read the original article on the WECT6 News website.

BURGAW, N.C. (WECT) – A Burgaw man was sentenced to 16 and a half years in prison for possessing counterfeit pills laced with fentanyl to distribute them in Wilmington.

Timothy Mark Blackmon, 29, pled guilty on August 15, 2023, to the charges involving pills that were made to look like Percocet, Hydrocodone and Oxycodone.

“Counterfeit pills laced with deadly fentanyl are made in makeshift labs with no quality control. They are driving American addiction and overdoses at a staggering rate,” said U.S. Attorney Michael Easley. “Never take a pill that wasn’t prescribed by your doctor. It could be your last. This defendant hid fentanyl pills in a bag of M&Ms and stashed thousands of pills in air vents in his home. The DEA and Pender County Sheriff’s Office did incredible work getting these pills off the street and may have saved lives.”

Per court documents, officers in November of 2021 received information that Blackmon was distributing the pills and learned he would travel to California to purchase the pills, then ship them through the U.S. Postal Service back to Eastern North Carolina.

Officers located him on Nov. 18, 2021, at the San Diego Airport about to board a plane back to North Carolina. He had 5,000 counterfeit fentanyl pills, more than $7000 in cash, and a USPS receipt for a package that had been shipped on November 16, 2021. The pills were concealed in a package that contained toys and candy, including some pills hidden in a bag of candy.

“On November 19, 2021, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and the Pender County Sheriff’s Office executed a search warrant at Blackmon’s residence during which law enforcement seized more than 11,000 counterfeit fentanyl pills concealed in air vents in Blackmon’s bedroom, over $87,000 in cash, and a small amount of cocaine. Flight records for Blackmon obtained by law enforcement also confirmed repeated trips to California and Arizona from March of 2021 through November of 2021. Information presented to the Court established that Blackmon would travel to California approximately once a month to purchase approximately 5,000-10,000 fentanyl pills from his source of supply and have them shipped back to North Carolina for further distribution. A DEA analysis of the pills found in the search confirmed the presence of fentanyl,” court documents stated.

Pill press molds used to produce illicit fentanyl targeted in legislation in Congress

by Lia Chien, NC Newsline
May 30, 2024

WASHINGTON – Bipartisan legislation pushed in both chambers of Congress aims to stop illegal fentanyl production and trafficking by focusing on the machinery used to manufacture pills.

The Criminalizing Abused Substance Templates, or CAST, Act would redefine the criminal penalty for producing counterfeit drugs using a pill press. Counterfeiting drugs is already illegal as outlined in the Controlled Substances Act but no penalty is included in the law.

Under CAST, it would be illegal to possess a pill press mold with the intent to produce schedule I or II drugs, a crime punishable for up to 20 years.

CAST was introduced in the House by Reps. Abigail Spanberger, a Virginia Democrat, and David Kustoff, a Tennessee Republican, in October 2019 and it was reintroduced in March 2023.

The bill got a boost earlier this month when Sens. Bill Cassidy, R-La., and Maggie Hassan, D-N.H., introduced it in the upper chamber.

Overdoses and deaths

The bill particularly targets the production and distribution of opioids, especially fentanyl. Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid with an incredibly high potency, about 100 times more than morphine. As a result, it’s often mixed into other drugs to increase strength, sometimes in lethal doses.

Synthetic opioids are the main drivers of opioid overdoses. Between 2020 and 2021, deaths involving synthetic opioids like illegally made fentanyl rose by 55%, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration.

Opioid-related and other drug poisoning deaths per 100,000 people are highest in West Virginia, the District of Columbia, Delaware, Tennessee and Kentucky.

Lawmakers attribute this rise in fentanyl-related deaths to the counterfeit market and drug trafficking.

“The overdose crisis and the rising scourge of fentanyl are undoubtedly made worse by the rise in use of illicit pill presses to manufacture counterfeit drugs,” Spanberger said in a statement about her legislation.

“By stepping up penalties for narcotics traffickers who use illicit pill presses to manufacture drugs, our bipartisan legislation would empower our law enforcement officers to crack down on these criminals and prevent dangerous substances — such as fentanyl — from being pressed into illicit pills and sold on our streets.”

Much of the illicit fentanyl sold in the U.S. contains at least a potentially lethal dose of fentanyl, 2 mg. A DEA study found that 42% of tested pills contained this amount or more, some as much as 5.1 mg.

Lawmakers said they want to ensure law enforcement officials have the necessary tools to stop the production and sale of these drugs.

“Strengthening penalties for the criminals creating these counterfeit drugs can help get them off the market,” said Hassan in a statement. “This bipartisan legislation will help ensure that law enforcement officials have the tools that they need to crack down on criminals making counterfeit drugs.”

According to the DEA, because lethal doses of fentanyl are often mixed in with other drugs, it can be “possible for someone to take a pill without knowing it contains fentanyl.” Cassidy said the CAST Act could prevent these deaths.

“No one should have to worry if their medicines are counterfeit or laced with fentanyl,” he said.

NC Newsline is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. NC Newsline maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Rob Schofield for questions: info@ncnewsline.com. Follow NC Newsline on Facebook and Twitter.