Drug pills with fentanyl sold in Chester County, SC with child present, warrants show
Three people have been charged by Chester County deputies in connection to the sale of pills believed to contain illegal fentanyl, including some deals done in the presence of a child, according to officials and arrest warrants.
Chester County Sheriff’s Office deputies arrested John Douglas Lipford, 30; Elizabeth Marie Crosby, 26; and Bryon Albertus Wollinsky, 26, on Wednesday after serving search warrants at a Great Falls home following a drug investigation, according to jail records and a statement from Grant Suskin, spokesman for the sheriff’s office.
According to the arrest warrants, some drug sales of pressed pills believed to contain fentanyl happened in December when a child was at a Circle Street home near Great Falls Elementary School. Police have audio and visual recordings of drug sales, the warrants state.
The area of the alleged drug deals is between Rock Hill and Columbia.
Lipford is charged with two counts of possession of drugs with intent to distribute, two counts of possession of drugs with intent to distribute near a park or school, and two counts of felony unlawful neglect of a child, arrest warrants and jail records show.
Crosby, the mother of the child present during the alleged drug deals, is charged with two counts of felony unlawful neglect of a child, according to the warrants.
Wollinsky is charged with one count of possession of drugs with intent to distribute and two other drug charges, Chester County jail records show.
DEA warns of fentanyl dangers
Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid pain reliever that is 50 to 100 times more potent than morphine, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention website. In September, the Drug Enforcement Agency issued a public advisory about fentanyl dangers.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, last year more than 93,000 people died of drug overdoses in the United States. That’s the largest number of drug-related deaths ever recorded in a year, according to the DEA.
Fentanyl, the synthetic opioid most commonly found in counterfeit pills, is the primary driver of this increase in overdose deaths, DEA officials said in a public safety alert issued in November.
As of Thursday afternoon, each suspect remained in the Chester County jail.
