PLEASANT GARDEN, N.C. โ A 31-year-old man has been arrested and charged in connection with a fatal 2024 overdose, according to the Guilford County Sheriffโs Office.
Deputies said Dylan Wayne Brown was taken into custody Monday following what they described as an extensive investigation by the departmentโs Major Crimes Investigative Unit.
The case dates back to April 29, 2024, when deputies responded to an overdose call on Laurel Knoll Drive in Pleasant Garden. Guilford County EMS pronounced 41-year-old Roger Lee Brown Jr. dead while crews were on the way to the home, according to the release.
Investigators have charged Brown with felony death by distribution. He is being held in the Guilford County Detention Center in Greensboro under a $100,000 secured bond. His first court appearance is scheduled for 2 p.m. Tuesday.
The investigation remains ongoing. Anyone with information is asked to contact Detective J. Allen at 336-641-2799 or submit an anonymous tip through Guilford County Crime Stoppers at 336-373-1000.Close Ad
Three Clinton-area men are behind bars this afternoon, facing a multitude of drug charges related to an ongoing death investigation involving a 49-year-old woman believed to have died from a suspected fentanyl overdose.
Dustin Millen
Warrants were issued Tuesday for James Bradford, 38, 1200 Taylors Bridge Hwy., Clinton, Dustin Millen, 37, 1200 Taylors Bridget Hwy., Clinton, and Benjamin Rackley, 43, of 50 Quarterhorse Lane, Clinton, with Bradford being taken into custody Tuesday, Nov. 18, and Miller and Rackley jailed earlier today, Nov. 20.
Miller is facing charges of trafficking in Schedule II controlled substance (fentanyl), possession methamphetamine, maintaining a dwelling for the use or sale of a controlled substance, sell or delivery of a Schedule II controlled substance, conspiracy to sell or deliver a Schedule II controlled substance and possession of drug paraphernalia.
Benjamin Rackley
According to Sampson County Sheriffโs reports, Bradford was charged with trafficking in a Schedule II controlled substance (fentanyl), possession of methamphetamine, maintaining a dwelling for the use or sale of a controlled substance, possession of stolen property and possession of drug paraphernalia.
Rackley, reports show, was charged with maintaining a dwelling for the use or sale of a controlled substance, sell or deliver of a Schedule II controlled substance (fentanyl), conspiracy to sell or deliver a Schedule II controlled substance and possession of drug paraphernalia.
James Bradford
The arrests come on the heels of a joint operation between the Sampson County Sheriffโs Office Criminal Investigation Division, the Special Investigation Division, the Uniform Patrol Division, the Criminal Interdiction Team and the Animal Control unit.
Sampson County Sheriffโs Capt. Marcus Smith noted in a release that a series of three search warrants were issued as a result of that operation, followed by the arrest of the three individuals.
The warrants were obtained, he said, as part of an ongoing probe into the 49-year-old Clinton womanโs death on Nov. 18, one suspected to be tied to a fentanyl overdose.
WILMINGTON, N.C. (WECT) – A Leland man has pleaded guilty to charges involving a fatal overdose in 2022.
42-year-old William McKinley Huckaby pleaded guilty to death by distribution and attempted trafficking in methamphetamine, according to a release from the District Attorneyโs Office.
James Ray Lewis, 42, died from fentanyl toxicity on June 24, 2022. Investigators from the New Hanover County Sheriffโs Office discovered a syringe and other drug paraphernalia near his body, which suggested fentanyl ingestion.
Detectives later discovered text messages between the two men. In one message, Huckaby encouraged Lewis to steal vacuums from a retailer in exchange for drugs, according to authorities.
The other messages also indicate that Huckaby had previously profited from tools Lewis stole in exchange for drugs, according to the DAโs Office.
Law enforcement claimed that Huckaby had roughly 26 grams of methamphetamine and a dosage unit of fentanyl on him when he was arrested.
โWilliam Huckaby encouraged those severely addicted to opioids to steal merchandise for him with the promise of fentanyl for payment,โ District Attorney Jason W. Smith said. โHuckabyโs exploitation of the addicted represents why our lawmakers enacted the Death by Distribution law. In many instances, severe addiction disrupts the decision-making parts of the brain, and those who profit while exploiting this addiction will be sent to prison.โ
Huckaby was sentenced to 76 to 104 months in prison and 2 years in the residential recovery program TROSA afterward.
CARTERET COUNTY, N.C. (WITN) – After losing her 26-year-old son, Tyler Dees, to fentanyl in 2022, Annie Brown of Carteret County has turned unimaginable grief into a powerful mission of hope and healing for others battling addiction.
Dees, a Carteret County native, was known for his love of fishing, making lures, and spending time with friends and family. His mother says his death came after years of struggling with mental health issues.
โI got the call the next day from his dad that he was gone,โ Brown said. โI knew he was going to pass away before I moved back from California, I just didnโt know it would happen right before the holidays. Heโs at peace right now with all the demons he was battling. He was diagnosed at a very early age with depression.โ
Brown says her sonโs death was not an isolated tragedy.
Supplies, such as the medications naloxone and buprenorphine, carried by Buncombe County community paramedics on the post-overdose response team.ย Credit:ย Courtesy of Justin Hall
By Rachel Crumpler
A life lost in Buncombe County in 2022 still weighs on โ and motivates โ Shuchin Shukla, a family physician who specializes in addiction medicine.ย
A community paramedic had responded to an overdose involving a person recently released from jail. After reviving them, the paramedic told the patient about a soon-to-launch program that would start people on a medication used to treat opioid addiction after an overdose.
Soon after, the person used again, experienced a second overdose and went into cardiac arrest. They later died at the hospital.
โFor the team working on this, the case hit home that every moment of every day matters for patients. At any minute, theyโre at risk of dying or having an overdose,โ Shukla said. โThatโs how critical this is.โ
For months, Shukla had been working with Buncombe County Emergency Medical Services to launch Buncombe Bridge to Care, a project to equip paramedics to administer buprenorphine โ a medication proven to ease opioid withdrawal symptoms, reduce cravings and support long-term recovery for people with opioid use disorder โwhen responding to overdoses or others in the community struggling with addiction.
Delesha Carpenter’s personal tragedy has fueled her mission to combat opioid overdoses through increased naloxone access. Her new website with UNC maps naloxone availability across NC’s 100 counties.
Delesha Carpenter began her career as a researcher focused on pediatrics. A little over seven years ago, her path took an unexpected turn following the deaths of two close friends.
โA lot of people who get into this field, itโs personal,โ Carpenter said. โI lost two friends within two weeks of each other to opioid overdoses. That really inspired me to increase access to naloxone.โ
The researcher and professor with the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy recently launched NalxoneNearMe.org. The website features an interactive map of all 100 North Carolina counties, rating them based on the number of naloxone distribution services available.
Durham County is tied with Mecklenburg County as the highest rated counties on the map with a score of 88. Wake County wasnโt far behind with a score of 77.
Carpenter told WRAL the Naloxone Availability Scores are based on the level of availability of no-cost naloxone and pharmacies that sell naloxone in each county.
Naloxone distribution resources are categorized into 14 types, including syringe service programs, EMS, harm reduction organizations, health departments, pharmacies and healthcare providers.
โThe highest score a county can receive is 100, which would mean that all 14 naloxone sources included in the Naloxone Availability Score are present in that county,โ Carpenter explained. โIf a county had one harm reduction program in the county, they would get the same amount of โcreditโ toward the score as a county that had two or three reduction programs.โ
Increased naloxone use and availability are among the efforts researchers say have contributed to a reduction in opioid overdose deaths in recent years.
โOne thing is everybodyโs life is worth saving. It is important to carry naloxone, especially if youโre going to be in situations where people are going to be using drugs, you never know what is in the drugs that youโre using,โ Carpenter said.
Carpenter said increasing the availability of medications for opioid use, such as buprenorphine and methadone, would also help reduce overdose fatalities.
โOther resources that people should be aware of, and one thatโs linked on our website, is Naloxone Saves. Ours tells you what types of sources are available, but you can go to the Naloxone Saves website and find the actual pharmacies that carry and stock naloxone, or find your health department and whether itโs distributing naloxone,โ Carpenter added.
Naloxone will not harm someone who hasnโt taken an opioid, so it is recommended even when it is unclear what kind of drug a person has taken.
More than one dose may be needed because some opioids, like fentanyl, can take a stronger hold on the opioid receptors.
Theresa Mathewson and Susan Burkhart never asked for this. They never asked for their mission in life to be educating others about the dangers of fentanyl, but after they both lost a child to fentanyl poisonings thatโs what theyโre doing.
And now โ that drug theyโre warning others about โ is popping up in all kinds of places and hurting all kinds of people, including the innocent.
Susan Burkhart, left, and Theresa Matthewson look at a poster filled with faces of Harnett County residents killed by fentanyl poisoning. Burkhart lost her granddaughter. Matthewson lost her son. Both women now fight to save as many others as they can.
It was added to the percocet pills that killed Mathewsonโs son and Burkhartโs granddaughter. Dunn police found it in pills that looked like Flintstones vitamins. Sampson County medical workers found it in cigarettes. It was even in the bottle of water that killed Sophia Walsh, whose mother leads the Fentanyl Victims Network of North Carolina.ย
โFentanyl is everywhere,โ Lt. Patrice Bogertey, of the Cumberland County Sheriffโs Office, told The Daily Record in April. โFentanyl is commonly mixed with heroin, cocaine, meth, and other narcotics to enhance their effects. It is available in various forms, including nasal sprays, liquids, pills, and powders.โ
Dealers have hidden it in liquid eye drops and Advil liquid gel pills, in candy and in edibles.
BURLINGTON, N.C. โ The Burlington Police Department has charged Christopher Jacob Tidwell, 29, with death by distribution following a six-month investigation into a fatal overdose. The incident occurred on March 26, 2025, in the 2500 block of South Church Street in Burlington, N.C. Tidwell, a Burlington resident, was already being held on pending trafficking fentanyl charges related to the same investigation. He has not received a bond for these charges.
The Burlington Police Department emphasized its commitment to holding fentanyl traffickers accountable and pursuing justice for overdose victims.
“Fentanyl continues to be a leading cause of fatal overdoses across the nation,” the department stated, adding that it will “continue to work aggressively to identify and prosecute those who distribute this deadly substance.”
