44 more people charged with trafficking drugs in SC fentanyl overdose investigation

Yahoo

19-05-2025

State Attorney General Alan Wilson, surrounded by prosecutors and law enforcement officers, announces charges in an ongoing investigation into drug trafficking on Monday, May 19, 2025. (Photo by Skylar Laird/SC Daily Gazette)
COLUMBIA — More than 40 additional people have been charged with trafficking and selling drugs as part of an ongoing statewide investigation into fentanyl overdoses, bringing the total number indicted to more than 100, the South Carolina Attorney General's Office announced Monday.
As of Monday, 108 people across five counties were facing charges in connection with trafficking and selling fentanyl, cocaine and methamphetamine, said Attorney General Alan Wilson. He announced charges for an initial 64 people in January 2024.
Three people have pleaded guilty. The remaining charges are pending, and the investigation dubbed Operation Devil in Disguise is ongoing, according to his office.
Where people have been charged
Anderson County
Greenville County
Jasper County
Lexington County
Pickens County
Source: Attorney General's Office
At least six people have died from drug overdoses traced back to the operation, Wilson said. Among the more than 380 charges defendants face are murder, accessory to murder, and conspiracy to commit murder brought against people suspected of selling drugs laced with fentanyl that led to overdoses. Those charges require prosecutors to prove the sellers knew their product was strong enough to be lethal.
Such proof wouldn't be needed for future charges under a soon-to-be law.
Under a bill passed this year that the governor is expected to sign, the Attorney General's Office will be able to pursue charges of fentanyl-induced homicide, an offense created by the bill that carries a sentence of up to 30 years for anyone who knowingly 'delivers, dispenses or otherwise provides' any amount of fentanyl that kills a person.
'That's going to be a wonderful tool for law enforcement and prosecutors to use, and that is why we so vigorously advocated for it,' Wilson said.
Most of the fentanyl, which is both potent and cheap, was mixed with cocaine and methamphetamine to either bulk up the amount of the drug sold or increase its strength, Wilson said.
Bill makes anyone who provides a fatal dose of fentanyl in SC a killer
That can be dangerous, since fentanyl carries a higher risk of overdose, said Creighton Waters, the lead prosecutor in the case.
Fentanyl overdoses killed 1,660 people in the state in 2022, according to the Department of Public Health's most recent data available. That accounted for more than 70% of the total 2,296 overdoses statewide that year, according to department data.
Two milligrams of the opioid can be enough to kill a person, depending on someone's size, tolerance and past usage, according to the federal Drug Enforcement Administration. That means every kilogram of fentanyl has the potential to kill 500,000 people, Wilson said.
Investigators believe traffickers have brought 540 kilograms of fentanyl into the state. Officers have confiscated 4 kilograms of fentanyl while investigating the operation, according to the Attorney General's Office.
'Fentanyl is obviously the biggest narcotics trafficking problem that we face because it is so deadly,' Waters said.
The operation is also believed to have trafficked 850 kilograms of cocaine and 500 kilograms of methamphetamine, Wilson said.
Law enforcement officers have confiscated more than 44 kilograms of cocaine, 10 kilograms of methamphetamine, $1 million in cash suspected of being exchanged for drugs and multiple guns, including assault rifles, according to the office.
In one case, police caught three defendants after watching them exchange 3 kilograms of cocaine outside a house in Greenville, prosecuting attorney Jennifer McKellar said as 11 of the accused appeared in Richland County bond court Monday.
Others were discovered through traffic stops or search warrants.
In several cases, defendants were charged with seemingly unrelated drug crimes that investigators later connected to the larger operation, causing prosecutors to add charges. At least one man continued trafficking drugs from jail, relaying coded instructions to his wife over the jail phone. Others were caught on surveillance cameras and through their phone communications smuggling drugs over state lines, McKellar said.
Legislators in 2023 passed a law creating penalties specific to people caught trafficking fentanyl. Under that law, a person caught trafficking 28 grams of fentanyl or more could be sentenced up to 40 years in prison. A first conviction of trafficking less than 14 grams comes with a sentence of up to 25 years, and a second conviction carries a mandatory 25 years in prison.
As law enforcement more vigorously pursues fentanyl trafficking, they have begun to see the supply drop, Waters said.
'Anecdotally, we're starting to see some effects of the supply being squeezed a bit by greater efforts at enforcement,' Waters said.
Investigators have traced many of the drugs back to Mexican cartels bringing them in over the country's southernmost border, Wilson said. People then bring the drugs through Atlanta and up to Greenville, which Wilson called the 'front porch' of the state when it comes to drug trafficking.
'This is just a fraction of the army that's coming for you,' Wilson said his message would be to people continuing to bring drugs into the state. 'We will come for you, we will get you and we will put you in prison if you continue to do this.'