After Raleigh man’s overdose, dealer convicted of selling fentanyl-laced drugs
A Durham woman charged with selling drugs containing fentanyl that resulted in the death of a 23-year-old Raleigh man was convicted in federal court Friday.
Carlisa Allen, 46, was convicted on multiple cocaine-related drug charges, including conspiring to distribute a substance containing fentanyl resulting in death and possessing a firearm to further a drug trafficking crime, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of North Carolina said in a news release.
Allen’s drug trafficking conspiracy resulted in the cocaine and fentanyl overdose death of Joshua Skip Zinner on March 10, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.
She was convicted after a four-day trial and could face 25 years to life in prison when sentenced on Feb. 13 next year.
Allen’s co-defendant, Cye Frasier, 46, was also charged in the conspiracy and was convicted on Oct. 23.
The Drug Enforcement Agency partnered with the Orange County Sheriff’s Office and the police departments of Raleigh, Durham and Cary to investigate the case.
Fentanyl-laced drugs
Court documents show the couple coordinated to sell fentanyl-laced drugs to Zinner, a former UNC Wilmington student.
Zinner was found deceased by his roommates at his Raleigh apartment on Bragg Street, after previously stating he wasn’t feeling well, according to a medical examiner’s report.
He had previously been in recovery in a drug rehabilitation program.
Frasier is Allen’s boyfriend, according to court documents. He could face life in prison when sentenced on Jan. 31, the Department of Justice said.
Detention order documents against Frasier in federal court also link him to the high-profile overdose death of Grace Burton, a 19-year-old UNC student who died on Duke University’s campus a day before Zinner.
The news of Burton’s death was first reported last month in The Assembly by a Duke student journalist.
Frasier, a Durham drug dealer known as “The Barber,” was charged in the drug trafficking conspiracy that killed Zinner and Burton after a DEA investigation in partnership with the Duke University Police Department, federal court documents show.
Neither Allen or Frasier have been charged directly in Burton’s death, prompting outcry from her family in Charlotte, WCNC reported.
The death of Joshua Zinner
Zinner graduated from Broughton High School where he was a wrestler, according to an online obituary.
He played in the Capital Area Soccer League in Raleigh and was a Carolina Hurricanes fan who liked attending Hurricanes games with his family.
“Those who knew him will be forever changed by his infectious personality, compassionate heart, and giving nature,” Zinner’s obituary reads. “A natural organizer of events and people, if there was fun to be had, you’d find Josh showing the way.”
