Fentanyl Victims Network of North Carolina
Stronger Together! Grassroots campaign against illicit fentanyl in NC IRS recognized 501(c)(3) non-profit public charity EIN: 88-3921380
The Wilmington Star News published a gallery of photos Senator Thom Tills’ roundtable discussion on the fentanyl epidemic. Read the article and view the pictures on the Wilmington Star News website.
North Carolina ranks number 6 in total drug overdose deaths, with New Hanover County being three times the national average.
U.S. Senator Thom Tillis, R-NC, led a roundtable discussion with local elected officials and law enforcement in Wilmington Wednesday on the opioid crisis.
“Nearly a hundred thousand lives are lost every year to opioid, first among them fentanyl,” said Tillis. “We’ve got to figure out how to make headway. We’re losing ground.”
According to a 2020 report from the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the majority of the fentanyl that crosses the southern border into the United States originates from China. The report highlights that China remains the primary source of fentanyl, fentanyl-related substances, and fentanyl precursors which are often smuggled through various routes before reaching the U.S.
Continue reading “‘We’re losing ground,’ says Tillis at opioid roundtable in Wilmington”Read the original article on the Daily Record website.
A Harnett County man with a history of law enforcement interaction for the past 20 years has been indicted by a grand jury for distributing fentanyl that killed four people on the morning of March 28, 2020.
The jury returned a true bill of indictment on Feb. 26 charging Gerard LaSalle McLean, 37, of 446 Raynor McLamb Road, Bunnlevel, with four counts each of death by distribution and aggravated death by distribution.
“There were two scenes,” explained Harnett County Sheriff’s Office Maj. Aaron Meredith. The first victim, Shannon Lynette McLean, was located at 112 Blake St. in Lillington at 12:49 a.m. Three other victims were found dead in a car located at 242 Nutgrass Road in Bunnlevel at 7:37 a.m.
“There were others who overdosed at both locations and survived,” Meredith shared.
Continue reading “Harnett man accused of poisoning 4 people”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.
Read the original article on the WUNC website. This article originally appeared on the NC Health News website.
LEXINGTON — On a recent Saturday, family members gathered in a circle at a church here to share stories of loved ones lost to fentanyl.
“Our whole world is turned upside down,” said Michelle, a Forsyth County mother who lost her 19-year-old son to fentanyl poisoning. She didn’t want to use her full name for this story or go into details about his death, as authorities are still investigating.
She doesn’t think her son knew he had taken fentanyl, which has become more common as drug dealers add it to everything from heroin to fake prescription medications.
Just a few grains of the highly potent opioid — about 2 milligrams, an amount that’s barely enough to cover the date on a penny — can be fatal. In 2021, fentanyl was involved in 83 percent of fatal medication or drug overdoses in the state, according to N.C. Department of Health and Human Services.
“If this can happen to him, this can happen to anybody,” said Michelle, who has made it her mission to help educate other parents about the dangers of fentanyl.
She’s not alone in her fight.
Barbara Walsh, whose Fentanyl Victims Network of North Carolina organized the recent Lexington meeting, is pushing for North Carolina to require that the opioid reversal drug naloxone be available in all schools. Her 24-year-old daughter died from fentanyl poisoning in 2021 after unknowingly drinking a bottle of water laced with the drug.
Continue reading “Fentanyl deaths rising among NC children”Read the original article and watch the video on the CBS17 website.
SELMA, N.C. (WNCN) — Agents with the Johnston County Sheriff’s Office narcotics division and STAR team put a huge drug case behind them this week.
According to deputies, numerous agents pulled up to 720 Campground Road Wednesday to execute a search warrant at the home. Inside were two adults and one child, including the subject of the investigation, 29-year-old Rashid Campbell. No one else in the residence were criminally charged.
Deputies say approximately 6,000 fentanyl pills were seized during the arrest, with a street value of $125,000. More pills were seized in numerous purchases in their two-month undercover investigation.
Additionally, deputies say they located three firearms, cash, and a money counting machine inside the home.
Campbell, who is a convicted felon, was arrested for numerous firearm and drug charges. They include multiple counts of trafficking in opium or heroin as well as possession of a Schedule II controlled substance with intent to manufacture, sell, or deliver.
Campbell appeared in court Friday for the charges, where his bond was set by the clerk for $2.5 million.
Instagram and Facebook, already under federal investigation, still collect revenue from ads that violate its policies
Read the original article on the Wall Street Journal website (subscription may be required)
Meta Platforms is running ads on Facebook and Instagram that steer users to online marketplaces for illegal drugs, months after The Wall Street Journal first reported that the social-media giant was facing a federal investigation over the practice.
The company has continued to collect revenue from ads that violate its policies, which ban promoting the sale of illicit or recreational drugs. A review by the Journal in July found dozens of ads marketing illegal substances such as cocaine and prescription opioids, including as recently as Friday. A separate analysis over recent months by an industry watchdog group found hundreds of such ads.
Read the original article on the WFMY News 2 website.
DAVIDSON COUNTY, N.C. — Six months after a woman died by an overdose, Davidson County Sheriff’s Office said it has arrested the person who supplied her the drugs.
The investigation began on January 28, when deputies said they responded to the death of an adult female in the Wallburg community. Then in July, detectives received toxicology results from the state medical examiner’s office that confirmed the death was due to fentanyl.
As a result, detectives arrested 47-year-old Wayne Phillips on July 26. He was charged with one count of death by distribution.
Phillips was ordered to be held at the Davidson County Detention Center.
Read the original article the Futurism.com website.
“BECAUSE OF THIS APP, MY CHILD DOES NOT GET TO LIVE.”
Despite a federal investigation into the practice, Meta continues to run ads on Facebook and Instagram selling cocaine and other illicit drugs — some of which have been found to contain fentanyl, a deadly opioid linked to hundreds of thousands of overdose deaths in recent years.
As the Wall Street Journal reports, the company’s ad marketplace was until recently still making money from ads for illicit drugs months after it was revealed that federal prosecutors in Virginia are investigating the troubling trend.
Despite running counter to its own policies banning such ads, tech-savvy dealers manage to skirt Meta’s rules by posting photos of their wares instead of writing out what they’re selling in the product description, which would trigger the AI censors deployed on the social networks. In one such ad found by the WSJ, the letters “DMT” are spelled out in what is presumably a powdered version of the powerful hallucinogen, which is short for the chemical name N,N-Dimethyltryptamine.
Continue reading “GANGSTER MARK ZUCKERBERG RUNNING FACEBOOK ADS FOR DRUGS FOUND TO BE LACED WITH FENTANYL”Read the original article and watch the video on NTD.com.
The Justice Department indicted a Chinese national Monday for allegedly importing 4,000 pounds of fentanyl precursors into the United States. It’s one of the largest fentanyl seizures to date. The chemicals are enough to make pills that could kill millions of Americans.