That operation resulted in two fatal overdoses.
Baltimore, Md (KM) Sentencing was handed down on Thursday in US District Court in Baltimore to a Hagerstown man who ran a fentanyl distribution operation. Antoine Jamel Henderson, 35, was given 14 years in a federal prison, followed by five years of supervised release after he gets out.
Henderson pleaded guilty in September to conspiring to distribute 40 grams or more of fentanyl. “Fentanyl is a dangerous drug. Even just two milligram can be lethal. And Henderson and his crew sold at least 280 grams of fentanyl, which is enough to kill everyone in Washington County,” says Jon Lenzner, the First Assistant Attorney For the US Attorney’s Office for Maryland.
In his plea agreement, Henderson admitted that his drug trafficking organization sold fentanyl that resulted in both fatal and non-fatal overdoses, including the overdose deaths of two Pennsylvania men, identified as Marc Brumbaugh, 27, and Nathan Bolden, 31, both of Waynesboro..
According to his plea agreement, Henderson conspired to distribute fentanyl from at least 2017 to January, 2018. “From 2017 through early 2018, the defendant was running this organization in which they were selling cocaine and heroin. . When we executed controlled purchases of drugs from Henderson, it was discovered that he was actually selling fentanyl,” says Lenzner. “Customers who don’t know that they are purchasing fentanyl can overdose and die. And in this case, there were at least two customers of Henderson who did die as a result of the fentanyl that they bought from him.”
On January 17th, search warrants were executed at two locations and three vehicles involved in Henderson drug trafficking operation. At his stash house on Atlantic Drive in Hagerstown, according to the US Attorney’s Office, more than 80-grams of fentanyl. were found in the bottom of a Coca Cola vending machine in the garage. Other items confiscated included ammunition, a drug press, digital scales, drug packaging equipment, plastic bags containing fentanyl residue, cellular phones and other drug paraphernalia. At Henderson’s personal residence on Lantern Lane in Hagerstown, agents recovered additional cell phones, a currency counter, and garage door opener that opened the garage to the stash house.
Lenzner says this sentence should send a message to those involved in the fentanyl trade. “Drug traffickers should be on notice that dealing in fentanyl increases their odds of federal prosecution and federal prison,” he says. In addition, Lenzner says Henderson must serve most of his 14-year sentence as there is no parole in the federal prison system.
In statement, the US Attorney’s Office thanks all of the federal, state and local agencies which assisted in bringing down Henderson’s operation, including the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Washington County Narcotics Task Force led by the Washington County Sheriff’s Office, and the Washington County State’s Attorney’s Office.
By Kevin McManus