Tag: doj

Raleigh Dealer Receives 27-Year Federal Prison Sentence for Fatal Fentanyl Overdose

Read the original press release on the US DOJ website.

RALEIGH, N.C. – A federal judge sentenced Kenneth Omar Roger Chung, also known as “Skully”, 53, of Raleigh, NC, to 27 years in federal prison for distributing fentanyl that led to the overdose death of a 26-year-old Raleigh man. In addition, he was also sentenced for conspiracy to possess with intent to sell fentanyl, meth, and cocaine.  Chung pleaded guilty to the charges on May 20, 2026.

“When you sell drugs, you know people can die. This isn’t just everyday dealing. He chose profit over human life. Chung kept pushing poison even after he knew someone had died, just went right back out looking for his next customer. This 27-year federal sentence protects the people of the Eastern District of North Carolina for decades and delivers the serious punishment his actions deserved and demanded. The message is simple: Drugs kill. Prison follows. Do the right thing,” said U.S. Attorney Ellis Boyle.

On March 28, 2023, the Raleigh Police Department responded to a 911 call and found a 26-year-old man dead from a drug overdose. Officers seized heroin, purple fentanyl powder, and 11 Xanax pills from his backpack. An autopsy confirmed he died from a fentanyl overdose. Evidence on his cell phone showed Chung had delivered the drugs the night before. Soon afterward, law enforcement conducted several controlled drug buys, including purple fentanyl, directly from Chung and his co-defendant, Jermaine Robinson.

Continue reading “Raleigh Dealer Receives 27-Year Federal Prison Sentence for Fatal Fentanyl Overdose”

Raleigh Fentanyl Trafficker Sentenced to More Than 23 Years in Prison

RALEIGH, N.C. – A Wake County man was sentenced today to more than 23 years (283 months) in prison on drug charges.  Myquan Taquil Houston, aka “Dirty,” pled guilty on January 13, 2025, to the offenses of conspiracy to distribute and possession with the intent to distribute 40 grams or more of a substance containing fentanyl, and possession with intent to distribute 40 grams or more of a substance containing fentanyl and 500 grams or more of cocaine.

According to court documents and other information presented in court, Houston conspired with another person to sell fentanyl to a confidential informant on five occasions in Raleigh.  Law enforcement searched Houston’s house in Knightdale, North Carolina on July 26, 2023. The search revealed 502.29 grams of cocaine, 41.54 grams of cocaine base (crack), 134.46 grams of fentanyl and ANPP, 26.6 grams of Oxycodone, digital scales, a loaded .45 caliber handgun, two cellphones, and $7,970 in U.S. currency.  The investigation determined that Houston sold approximately $1,400 of fentanyl every other week for at least a year prior to his arrest, making him responsible for 1,590.46 grams of fentanyl and 635.1 grams of cocaine.

Houston has prior convictions for felony breaking and entering and conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute a quantity of cocaine and a quantity of cocaine base (crack), distribution of a quantity of cocaine, and aiding and abetting. Houston was on federal supervised release in the Eastern District of North Carolina at the time of these offenses.

Daniel P. Bubar, Acting U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of North Carolina made the announcement after sentencing by U.S. District Judge James C. Dever III.  The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives and the Raleigh Police Department investigated the case and Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Aria Q. Merle prosecuted the case.

Related court documents and information can be found on the website of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina or on PACER by searching for Case No. 5:24-CR-00238. 

Download PRess Release PDF

Two dozen North Carolinians charged in drug trafficking ring

Watch the video and read the article on the WCNC News website.

The arrests come as the Fentanyl Victims Network spreads awareness and seeks justice for families who have lost loved ones to the drug.

GREENSBORO, N.C. — The Department of Justice announced a federal indictment Tuesday, charging 38 defendants in a drug trafficking conspiracy.

The indictment, announced by U.S. Attorney Sandra J. Hairston of the Middle District of North Carolina, includes 27 people from the Tar Heel State.

All but one of the defendants are already in custody. 18 of them will have their first court appearances in North Carolina on Tuesday or Wednesday. If convicted, they face up to life in prison for narcotics conspiracy and up to 20 years for money laundering conspiracy. 

The charges of narcotics distribution conspiracy include fentanyl, an ongoing problem statewide.

“There is someone who has died from fentanyl in all 100 counties,” Barb Walsh said. “We connect the families to one another so they can gain support and understanding.”

Walsh is the Executive Director of Fentanyl Victims Network of North Carolina, an organization she founded after her daughter, Sophia, died at just 24 years old.

“Killed by fentanyl in a water bottle in 2021. Took us five months to find out that fentanyl killed her. Took seven months to find out that it was the water bottle,” Walsh said. “We learned that it was killing a lot of North Carolinians and that these families, like myself, felt very alone, and we felt nobody really wanted to hear how or why our loved one died. Once they heard the word fentanyl, they were not interested anymore.”

Amid Tuesday’s arrests, overdoses are going down in the state. The latest CDC data predicts deaths have dropped about 30% from 2023 to 2024. Walsh says this is likely due to education and more distribution of naloxone, which she encourages everyone to keep on them, especially since many victims do not know they’re ingesting fentanyl.

“They think it’s adderall. They think they need to do well on the test, so they’ll take a pill from that they order off Snapchat, and it contains fentanyl, and they’re dead,” Walsh said. “That is how easy someone could die.”

She also wants people experiencing grief from a fentanyl death to know there are resources available.

“Once we are gathered together and understanding our grief together, we have chosen to redirect our pain into passion, and that is to save someone else’s life by educating them about fentanyl,” Walsh said.

You can reach out to Fentanyl Victims Network of North Carolina at this link or by emailing info@fentvic.org.

eBay and the Department of Justice settle over pill press sales

On January 31, 2024, eBay and the U.S. Department of Justice announced a settlement: In return for not prosecuting eBay for alleged violations of the Controlled Substances Act (CSA) related to the sale of pill presses and encapsulating machines since 2015, eBay will pay $59 million and strengthen compliance programs around the sale of these machines on their platforms.

In a statement, eBay reiterated that the company “expressly denies the DOJ’s allegations and the settlement does not include any admission of wrongdoing.”

The Partnership for Safe Medicines has monitored the online pill press market for years, which means we have witnessed eBay’s efforts to successfully suppress the sale of these products on its platform. In light of this settlement, it is likely that other platforms that could be used to sell pill presses and encapsulating machines may ban these sales rather than undertake the burden of compliance. In the future, pill press sales will likely be confined to overseas platforms that are more difficult for U.S. regulators to reach.

This appears to be the first time that the U.S. Department of Justice has applied the “broker” role in this statute to an online marketplace for pill press or encapsulating machine transactions. This follows the Biden administration’s novel use of Treasury sanctions against Chinese pill press manufacturers in 2023.

Read the full analysis and the settlement document on the Partnership for Safe Medicines website.

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