Timothy Markee Gayton, 33, a Rock Hill man tied to a clandestine fentanyl and cocaine operation near Lake Wylie, has been sentenced to 25 years in federal prison after admitting to multiple trafficking charges. U.S. District Judge Sherri A. Lydon handed down the 300-month term on Thursday, and the court said the prison time will be followed by a period of court-ordered supervision. Prosecutors and local officials pointed back to a 2022 raid on a mobile home that investigators described as a manufacturing hub for counterfeit pills distributed across the region.
According to Queen City News, Judge Lydon ordered Gayton to serve 300 months behind bars followed by five years of supervised release. Representatives of the U.S. Attorney’s Office confirmed the sentence to local reporters, and reporter Andrew Dys, whose coverage appears in regional outlets, detailed prosecutors’ arguments at an April hearing.
What agents found in the Lake Wylie lab
Federal agents who executed a search warrant at the Lake Wylie-area mobile home in October 2022 found containers holding roughly 160,000 pills that totaled more than 29 kilograms of fentanyl, along with cocaine, methamphetamine, heroin and several pill-press machines, the DEA says. The agency called the seizure one of the largest synthetic-opioid hauls in York County history and said the lab produced counterfeit pills stamped to look like prescription medication. DEA
Prosecutors: he kept selling from behind bars
Prosecutors told the court that Gayton did not stop dealing after his arrest, arguing that he continued to set up multi-kilogram fentanyl shipments while jailed, including two half-kilogram deliveries, using contraband phones. They pushed for a lengthy sentence based on that conduct. “He continued his criminal behavior while being detained at the Lexington County Detention Center,” prosecutors wrote in court papers, according to reporting by Andrew Dys. AOL
Co-defendants, plea deals and earlier sentences
Gayton was the last of five defendants connected to the Lake Wylie lab to be sentenced. His twin brother, Timario Gayton, and another Rock Hill man, Quonzy Hope, each received 15 years in federal prison after guilty pleas in 2025, and prosecutors said other co-conspirators have also been handed prison terms. The wider investigation resulted in a multi-count indictment that federal prosecutors brought after a multi-agency OCDETF probe. U.S. Attorney’s Office
Why the sentence matters locally
Federal sentences do not come with parole, so the 300-month term effectively sets the length of Gayton’s time in custody before supervised release can begin, according to prosecutors and reporting on the case. Law-enforcement leaders who briefed the public after the 2022 raid described the mobile-home lab as a major local source of counterfeit pills and deadly fentanyl, the kind of operation officials say has helped drive recent overdose spikes in the region. DEA
Neighbors and public-health advocates continue to cite the case as a stark example of how quickly pressed fentanyl can move into local street markets and why investigators keep stressing pill-specific prevention and overdose-response efforts. Court records show the sentencing drew heavily on those public-safety concerns and on prosecutors’ argument that Gayton continued trafficking even after his arrest, a factor judges said justified a stiff federal term.
