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Three city residents accused of selling fentanyl that resulted in at least two overdose deaths have received lengthy prison sentences.
The U.S. Attorney's Office on Thursday announced 20-year sentences to 31-year-old Garson E. Butcher and 37-year-old Ryan Bloom and a seven-year sentence to 29-year-old Alisha Centi. All three were convicted of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute, and to distribute, heroin, fentanyl and methamphetamine.
Butcher and Centi were involved in a separate case that occurred between March 2020 and June 2021. The pair allegedly "conspired with others to possess and sell heroin, fentanyl, and methamphetamine," the U.S. Attorney's Office said in a news release.
On March 29, 2020, Butcher and Centi were accused of selling fentanyl -- a potent synthetic opioid drug used to treat pain but often abused when mixed with narcotics -- that resulted in the death of an unnamed individual. The pair also reportedly sold fentanyl to another individual on Sept. 28, 2020, that resulted in a non-fatal overdose. The latter required multiple doses of naloxone.
Investigators say Butcher and Centi used residences on Fairview Avenue and Roland Road to manufacture and distribute heroin, fentanyl and methamphetamine.
Meanwhile, Bloom was accused of utilizing a Fairview Avenue residence in Jamestown for "drug trafficking activities," the U.S. Attorney's Office said, "selling drugs, and running a needle exchange out of the residence." He reportedly ran the operation with another person, identified as Rachelle Allison.
"These activities resulted in numerous overdoses occurring at that location," the government stated.
Sheriff's deputies on April 5, 2020, responded to a Hoag Road residence in Ashville for a possible overdose death. The individual was found dead inside the residence.
A search of the victim's phone revealed Facebook messages with Bloom from the previous day that were "drug related."
Bloom admitted that he and Allison sold heroin and fentanyl to the victim the day prior. He also sold heroin and fentanyl to another individual on July 19, 2020, that resulted in a non-fatal overdose. That individual also required multiple doses of naloxone.
Allison was previously convicted and is awaiting sentencing, the government said.
Butcher, Centi and Bloom were each sentenced by U.S. District Judge John L. Sinatra Jr.
Since 2020, drug overdoses have been linked to more than 100,000 deaths a year nationally, with about two-thirds of them fentanyl-related, the Associated Press reported. That's more than 10 times as many drug deaths as in 1988, at the height of the crack epidemic.
According to an AP report, fentanyl often arrives in the U.S. from Mexico and is mixed into supplies of other drugs, including cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine and counterfeit oxycodone pills.
Some users seek it out. Others don't know they're taking it.
Ingesting 2 milligrams of fentanyl can be fatal, meaning 1 gram -- about the same as a paper clip -- could contain 500 lethal doses.