A South Carolina man, Onesepherous L. Grissette, has been sentenced to nearly six years in federal prison for his role in shipping counterfeit pills laced with fentanyl to North Georgia. The 43-year-old Grissette, from Conway, used the U.S. Mail to distribute the fake drugs, which mimicked the appearance of the prescription medication oxycodone, a statement from the U.S. Attorney's office revealed.
According to U.S. Attorney Ryan K. Buchanan, "The danger posed by counterfeit pills and fentanyl is a real and continuing threat to our citizens and has claimed many lives." Buchanan expressed that federal agencies are persistently crafting novel investigative techniques to catch and convict those trafficking these lethal substances, as reported by U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Georgia. Grissette was snared after a Postal Inspection Service investigation intercepted a shipment in July 2022, the drugs within were found to contain fentanyl, not oxycodone as was portrayed.
The pills' recipient, who lived in Chickamauga, Georgia, had allegedly paid Grissette around $85,000 over a nearly two-year period for more than 4,500 pills. Grissette was sentenced on June 24, after pleading guilty to a charge of conspiracy to possess with the intent to distribute a controlled substance. U.S. District Judge William M. Ray, II handed down the sentence, which also includes 10 years of supervised release post-prison.
"The US Postal Inspection Service is charged with defending the nation’s mail system from illegal use," Tommy D. Coke, Inspector in Charge of the Atlanta Division, as noted to the press release. The agency works collaboratively to pursue traffickers, and in this case, with assistance from the Lookout Mountain Drug Task Force and the Horry County Sheriff’s Office. Assistant U.S. Attorney Calvin A. Leipold, III prosecuted the case.
Information obtained by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Georgia urges the public, especially parents and children, to educate themselves about the dangers of drugs through various websites including www.justthinktwice.gov, www.operationprevention.com/, and www.dea.gov/onepill. For further information, they encourage contact with the U.S. Attorney’s Public Affairs Office.
