Rock Hill man sentenced after pleading guilty in 2,000 pill fentanyl meth bust
A Rock Hill man has been sentenced to 18 years in a South Carolina prison after pleading guilty to drug trafficking and gun charges involving thousands of fentanyl and meth pills.
The sentence is in addition to a 10-year federal sentence for fentanyl, crack cocaine and weapons convictions. Diantae Ramon Brown, 23, was sentenced in federal court after pleading guilty in Charlotte, according to prosecutors and court records.
Brown pleaded guilty Thursday in York County criminal court to trafficking methamphetamine, trafficking crack cocaine, and possession of a weapon during a violent crime, said Amber Holt, the 16th Circuit assistant solicitor who prosecuted the case.
Brown was arrested in Rock Hill by York County drug unit agents in November 2019 with a gun, crack cocaine, and around 2,000 pills that had a mixture of fentanyl and meth, Holt said.
Judge Bill McKinnon accepted a negotiated plea between prosecutors and Brown that was for the 18-year sentence, Holt said.
Brown’s lawyer, Geoff Dunn of Rock Hill, declined comment.
Charlotte area charges for fentanyl cocaine, gun
Federal court records show Brown pleaded to guilty fentanyl, crack cocaine and gun charges in October 2021 in Charlotte.
He was sentenced to just over 10 years -- 123 months -- in prison on those charges, federal court records show.
The sentencing in York County court is unrelated to the federal conviction and sentence, Holt said.
In that North Carolina case, Brown was one of 13 people from Upstate South Carolina and the Charlotte region who were found guilty of drug and weapon crimes, federal prosecutors said in an August written news release.
That case centered around Union County, N.C. and surrounding areas, federal prosecutors said.
Fentanyl problem regional and national
Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid that is approximately 50 times more potent than heroin and 100 times more potent than morphine, according to the federal Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). The DEA says fentanyI is inexpensive, widely available, highly addictive — and potentially lethal.
Fentanyl has become the leading source of York County overdose deaths in recent years, and is now the most common drug in the Charlotte region that has created a new level of danger, officials said.
Drug traffickers are increasingly mixing fentanyl with other illicit drugs—in powder and pill form—to drive addiction and create repeat customers, the DEA said in the August statement.
In July, police told the Charlotte Observer fentanyl pill mixtures have created a new level of danger and are now the most common drug in Charlotte.
York County officials said in a public service video posted on the county Facebook page that in 2021 there were 109 opioid deaths in York County, with 81 of those involving fentanyl.
A 2020 York County report showed 48 of 85 overdose deaths that year were from fentanyl, statistics showed.
The Centers for Disease Control said more than 107,000 people in the United States died of drug overdoses and poisonings in 2021, with 67 percent of those deaths involving synthetic opioids such as fentanyl.
This story was originally published September 2, 2022 at 11:04 AM.
