3 York County jail inmates overdose, investigation ongoing into drugs
An investigation is ongoing at the jail after three inmates overdosed while in custody on drugs believed to be fentanyl, the York County Sheriff’s Office said.
Five inmates have been charged with possession of narcotics with intent to distribute after searches at the jail, but it remains unclear how the illegal fentanyl pills got inside the jail.
The three inmates who deputies said overdosed Wednesday night and Thursday morning were all in the same housing unit of the county jail in York, according to a written statement from the sheriff’s office.
The three were given medical assistance after they were found, the statement said. The first inmate overdose was found around 11:30 p.m Wednesday, then the other two were found after midnight, officials said. All three were taken to area hospitals then returned to the jail, officials said.
Unclear how drugs got into jail
The sheriff’s office has charged five inmates with drug offenses related to distribution of the pills.
“It is clearly disturbing as to how these pills were brought into the facility, and even more so the life-threatening risk that the inmates posed on themselves by taking such a dangerous narcotic,” York County Sheriff Kevin Tolson said in the statement.
After the overdose incidents, a search of the housing unit was conducted and no additional pills were found, deputies said.
The entire jail, which has around 530 inmates, has now been searched, Tolson said.
The sheriff’s office operates the jail which is located at the Moss Justice Center in York, S.C.
“We are searching the entire facility and all inmates for any further pills,” Tolson said. “This is the first time that this large of an amount of contraband has made it past our stringent security screenings, and we will work to prevent something like this to happen again.”
During the arrest and booking process, all inmates are physically searched and put through a body scanner, deputies said. The pills were not discovered or seen during those searches, officials said in the statement.
Inmates charged
Deputies said in the statement that detention officers received information Tuesday about the possibility of pills in one specific housing unit. During a search of that unit, officers said inmate Tyquan Rodriguez Green, 25, of Charlotte, was attempting to dispose of 95 pressed fentanyl pills. Detention staff were able to retrieve the pills before they were flushed in a toilet, officials said.
Green, who was in jail from an Aug. 25 arrest, was charged with possession of narcotics with intent to distribute and contraband in jail, according to deputies and jail records.
A sheriff’s office incident report obtained by The Herald from the Tuesday incident involving Green showed that the pills allegedly weighed around 10 grams and were believed to be fentanyl.
In a follow-up search of the jail housing unit Wednesday, deputies said inmates Keon Arquis Davis, 27, of Rock Hill, Tyler Mitchell Fesperman, 27, of Rock Hill, Jacob Dwayne Hall, 29, of Clover, and Leroy Westberry III, 30, of Rock Hill, also were charged with possession of narcotics with intent to distribute.
Fentanyl dangers
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 Centers for Disease Control said an estimated 107,622 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.
York County officials said in a public service video released in August that in 2021 there were 109 opioid deaths in York County, with 81 of those involving fentanyl.
In July, The Charlotte Observer reported that Charlotte-Mecklenburg police said fentanyl was the area’s largest drug problem.
