A Cleveland County jury has convicted a Moore man of trafficking fentanyl after an undercover drug task force operation caught him on his way to sell the drug in March 2025. Livingston Strachan was found guilty of aggravated trafficking of illegal drugs involving fentanyl and conspiracy, with jurors recommending a combined 35 years behind bars.
Undercover Deal Led Police Straight to Strachan
According to KOKH, an undercover agent with the District 21 Drug and Violent Crime Task Force arranged to purchase fentanyl from Strachan in Moore back in March 2025. As Strachan headed to the meetup location to complete the deal, Moore police pulled him over and took him into custody before the exchange could be finished.
Officers recovered approximately 20 grams of suspected fentanyl, the outlet reported. Strachan was ultimately convicted on both the trafficking and conspiracy counts in Cleveland County.
Jury Recommends Decades Behind Bars
Jurors recommended a 25-year sentence on the aggravated trafficking charge and a separate 10-year sentence on the conspiracy charge, per the same report. Strachan's formal sentencing is not scheduled to take place until January 13, 2027, meaning the recommended terms are not yet final.
A Senate floor version of SB 1264 proposed amendments to Sections 20E and 20H and Section 644, according to the Oklahoma Legislature.
Fentanyl's Toll Across Oklahoma
The Moore case lands amid a broader reckoning with fentanyl across the state. The Oklahoman reported that 748 people in Oklahoma died of fentanyl-related overdoses in 2023, a 21% increase over the prior year, and that fentanyl overdose deaths statewide grew by more than 1,300% between 2019 and 2023. By contrast, a separate state health department figure put the 2023 total at 730 deaths, with that same account citing a 34% drop to 487 deaths in 2024 — a discrepancy that has not been resolved between the two sources.
About 70% of Oklahoma's fentanyl deaths in 2023 also involved methamphetamine or another drug, the same Oklahoman report found, and Pawnee County in the northeastern part of the state saw fentanyl death rates roughly double the statewide rate in both 2022 and 2023. The newspaper's reporting also noted the drug's reach inside state custody: the Oklahoma Department of Corrections recorded 30 alcohol- or drug-related deaths in 2023, and prison staff statewide responded to 530 non-fatal overdoses over the two years examined.
