A 74-year-old woman distributed the equivalent of 150,000 lethal doses of fentanyl in the mail, as part of a “side hustle” to pay for her own medications.
Patricia Parker, from Austin, Texas, sent more than 1,000 parcels suspected to be illegal drugs, according to authorities. She distributed counterfeit amphetamine pills containing fentanyl, though claims she did not know they had been laced with the synthetic opioid.
The trafficking scheme unravelled in 2022, when she tried to sell counterfeit amphetamines to an undercover Food and Drug Administration agent.
Ten months into the probe, agents raided Parker’s home and found she was in possession of 18,000 pills. Some of the illicit tablets, which an FDA agent said included Adderall, oxycodone and diazepam, were found in an ornamental tin.
Parker pleaded guilty in May this year to conspiracy to distribute fentanyl and distribution of over 310 grams of fentanyl, equivalent to 150,000 lethal doses of the drug.
She was sentenced November 25, to two years’ probation with a special condition of nine months home confinement.
Her lawyer said, in a sentencing memorandum seen by Boston.com, that Parker had been purchasing her own medications from a man called ‘John’ for years.
But when her real estate job faltered due to the Covid-19 pandemic she was left unable to pay for her medicine. Parker then agreed to distribute John’s drugs in exchange for her own medications, in a move her attorney referred to as a “side hustle”.
That meant Parker became a “remailer,” someone who breaks up large shipments of drugs into smaller packages for distribution.
The 74-year-old has since claimed that she had no idea she had distributed fentanyl in her packages.
“I would NEVER have knowingly taken part in anything related to such a dangerous drug,” she wrote in a letter to a judge, seen by Boston.com. “I should have inquired what it was, so that was my own doing. I see that in retrospect, but that fact haunts me to this day.”
Authorities argued, though, in a sentencing memorandum seen by Fox News, that an “educated, adult woman” must have recognized the risks involved in distributing counterfeit drugs.
A statement from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for Rhode Island said the case had been jointly investigated by the Office of Criminal Investigations and US Postal Inspection Service as well as the FDA.
“According to information presented to the court, Parker engaged in drug trafficking for an extended timeframe,” the statement said.
“Her drug trafficking activity was discovered during an investigation in May of 2022, during which she distributed counterfeit amphetamine pills containing fentanyl to an undercover Food and Drug Administration Special Agent.
“Approximately ten months after the undercover operation, agents executed a search warrant at her residence where they learned that the defendant was in possession of over 18,000 pills, including Schedule II and IV controlled substances, all unapproved for use by the United States Food and Drug Administration, and counterfeit amphetamine pills containing fentanyl.”
