Exclusive: Judge rules seizure valid; property was drug lab not man cave in SC fentanyl bust
A federal judge has balked at claims that a secret drug lab where 60-plus pounds of fentanyl was seized was a “man cave” or “party house” in the largest-ever bust of dangerous drugs in York County.
The ruling denied a motion to suppress the drugs, guns and money found near Lake Wylie in October 2022 from a trial where the defendants arrested could face up to life in prison if convicted.
Four men were charged after the raid on Golden Pond Drive where police and prosecutors said a clandestine drug lab was operating along Lake Wylie between Rock Hill and Charlotte.
One of the four defendants, Timario Martez Gayton, claimed a right to privacy at the trailer because he was an invited “social guest,” who did not own the property, documents show. Gayton and his lawyers filed documents and argued the judge should toss the search and seizure of the drugs.
Gayton is represented by lawyers Dick Harpootlian and Jim Griffin, the same attorneys who represented convicted South Carolina killer Alex Murdaugh in an unrelated case earlier this year. The Murdaugh case, now under appeal, received international attention.
Judge: No party house, but a drug lab
The defense lawyers “suggested” in a suppression hearing Tuesday the mobile home was used as a man cave or party house and Gayton was a guest who hunted nearby, U.S. District Court Judge Sherri Lydon wrote in a ruling Thursday.
But Lydon said the drugs and pill-making materials found, plus the lack of evidence that shows anyone lived at the trailer, support the mobile home was used as a clandestine drug lab.
“Besides a single liquor bottle and a large television found unplugged behind a sectional in the living room, there is very little evidence from which the court could find the trailer was used for that purpose (man cave),” Lydon wrote.
The evidence “overwhelmingly suggests” no none was at the trailer “for anything other than manufacturing fentanyl pills,” Lydon wrote. The ruling supports prosecutors’ claims the mobile home was set up for drug making.
“At the time the search warrant was executed, there was no bed, very little furniture or food, no refrigerator, no clothing, and no toiletries or other accouterments of life throughout the trailer,” Lydon wrote in the ruling. “Gayton did not own the property at 5271 Golden Pond Drive, nor do the facts support that he, or anyone else, lived there. On the other hand, there is overwhelming evidence the property was used as a drug lab. While furniture, food, and toiletries were mostly absent from the property, there were ‘dozens of kilograms of deadly drugs’ at the location.”
Four York County men arrested
Javaris Latrey Johnson, of Clover, has already pleaded guilty to conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute 400 grams or more of a mixture or substance containing a detectable amount of fentanyl, records show. Sentencing is pending.
Charges remain pending against Quonzy Lanard Hope, Thomas Anthony Perry, and Gayton, federal court records show. Each has pleaded not guilty.
The largest-ever bust
In October 2022, Drug agents from the federal government and York County raided the property and found the most weight of fentanyl ever found locally.
A federal agent testified this week in court that police seized almost 30 kilograms of fentanyl, including 160,000 pills and 7.8 kilograms of powder. Police also found 1.8 kilograms of cocaine, 700 grams of methamphetamine, 1.5 kilograms of heroin, and 1.2 kilograms of para-fluorofentanyl, court documents show.
The search also netted two guns, over $50,000 in cash, a vacuum sealer, a money counter, around 60 pounds of pill binder, pill dyes, and stamps bearing the copyrighted symbols used by pharmaceutical companies that manufacture OxyContin pills, according to court documents.
Fentanyl in the community
At a news conference after the Lake Wylie seizure, local officials, U.S. Rep. Ralph Norman and Sen. Lindsey Graham said the fentanyl taken from the trailer was enough to kill the entire population of South Carolina.
Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid that is approximately 50 times more potent than heroin and 100 times more potent than morphine, according to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. The DEA says fentanyl is inexpensive, widely available, highly addictive and lethal.
Area police say fentanyl is more prevalent and easier to get than ever before, the Charlotte Observer has reported.
Officials say fentanyl-related overdoses have spiked in the region in recent years. In York County in 2022, 90 of 111 overdose deaths were attributed to fentanyl, according to information released publicly by the York County Coroner.
What happens next?
A trial in federal court in Columbia for three defendants — Hope, Gayton, and Perry — could begin as early as January, court documents show.
Sentencing for Johnson, who has already pleaded guilty, has been put on hold until the trial for the other three men, court documents show.
The federal drug charges are not the only criminal complaints against the four men arrested.
Before the four were indicted in federal court, each was charged in York County in South Carolina state court on drug charges, records show.
The federal case and state cases are separate and the state court charges remain pending.
