Federal grand jury indicts 4 York County men in Lake Wylie fentanyl drug lab case
A federal grand jury in South Carolina has indicted four York County men connected to an October drug bust that netted the largest fentanyl seizure in York County history, court documents show.
More than 60 pounds of fentanyl, along with pounds of cocaine and meth, were found at what the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) said was a mobile home lab in a residential area near Lake Wylie.
Federal Indictments released in the U.S. District Court in Columbia Thursday allege Quonzy Lanard Hope, Thomas Anthony Perry, Javaris Latrey Johnson, and Timario Martez Gayton conspired together with intent to distribute the drugs, and possessed the drugs with intent to distribute.
Hope also was indicted on a separate charge of possession of fentanyl with intent to distribute, indictment records show.
Hope, Perry, Johnson and Gayton, “knowingly and intentionally did combine, conspire, agree and have a tacit understanding with each other,” the conspiracy indictment alleges.
Lake Wylie straddles the border of North Carolina and South Carolina, with shoreline in Mecklenburg and York counties. DEA documents and other officials’ statements in the case allege there has been a huge drug operation in the Southeastern United States.
The seizure and arrests led to a news conference in late October attended by U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham, U.S. Rep. Ralph Norman, members of York County and Rock Hill law enforcement, and York County prosecutors. Officials warned of overdose dangers at that news conference.
Indictments released Thursday state federal authorities intend to seize the property on Golden Pond Drive where the lab was being run if the suspects are convicted.
Suspects face life in prison
All four defendants remain in custody without bail at the York County jail. Each was arrested in October at the mobile home where the alleged drug lab was housed, records show.
Orders from a federal judge filed Thursday require that the four defendants be brought to Columbia for hearings in federal court. It remains unclear when the four defendants will appear in federal court.
The new indictments are federal felonies that carry a potential sentence of up to life in prison if the suspects are convicted, prosecutors have said.
South Carolina does not have a state law specific to trafficking large amounts of fentanyl, officials said. Fentanyl possession with intent to distribute in South Carolina under state law would carry a maximum of 15 years for a conviction -- regardless of the amount.
Each suspect also faces South Carolina state charges of drug trafficking and drug distribution. They were charged by S.C. officials after they were arrested in October.
The “clandestine laboratory”
Seven pill presses were seized, along with more than $50,000 in cash and the drugs, according to DEA and York County drug unit documents filed in the case.
DEA agents told a federal judge in a November criminal complaint no one lived at the mobile home but it was being operated as a “clandestine laboratory,” court documents state.
Four guns also were seized.
Fentanyl and public danger
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 (DEA). The DEA says fentanyI is inexpensive, widely available, highly addictive — and lethal.
Fentanyl has created a new level of danger in the Charlotte region, just over the state line from York County, and is the most common illegal drug locally, police told The Charlotte Observer earlier this year.
