Arnold Burgess, Fentanyl Distribution, Virginia 2016

A Hampton Roads man, Arnold Burgess, 50, was sentenced to 30 years in prison for distributing fentanyl that resulted in death. The Court noted that Burgess had appeared in court on various criminal charges at least 43 times during his life.

The crime occurred in November 2016 when a man was found dead in his home as the result of a fentanyl overdose. Based on telephone records and eyewitnesses, Burgess was identified as the drug dealer who provided the victim with fentanyl.

Burgess was arrested in Stafford County five months after the death with 1/4 kilogram of fentanyl. He was connected to the William Joe drug trafficking organization, which was responsible for selling heroin on the Virginia Peninsula for many years prior to the arrest of its senior members in 2017.

The case was investigated as part of the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF) Operation Broken Finger. The OCDETF program is a federal multi-agency, multi-jurisdictional task force that supplies supplemental federal funding to federal and state agencies involved in the identification, investigation, and prosecution of major drug trafficking organizations.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Eric M. Hurt. The sentencing was made by U.S. District Judge Raymond A. Jackson.

A copy of the press release is located on the website of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Eastern District of Virginia.

Source: https://www.justice.gov/usao-edva/pr/drug-dealer-gets-30-years-fentanyl-related-death