Edward Barrett, Fentanyl Trafficking, New York 2023

Two Elmira residents have been sentenced to prison for their roles in a large-scale opioid manufacturing and trafficking operation in the Southern Tier of New York.

Edward Barrett, 27, was sentenced to serve 90 months in prison by Chief U.S. District Judge Frank P. Geraci, Jr. for conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute, and to distribute, 100 grams or more of a fentanyl analogue. He was convicted of selling blue pills containing furanyl fentanyl in the Elmira area.

Dusty Pemberton, 24, was sentenced to serve 70 months in prison for conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute, and to distribute, 10 grams or more of a fentanyl analogue. He also admitted to selling pills to a customer who ultimately died of a drug overdose.

The operation, which operated between 2015 and May 2017, was led by Robert Ian Thatcher and Maximillian Sams. Thatcher was previously sentenced to serve 23 years in federal prison, while Amber Bates, Thatcher's girlfriend, was sentenced to five years probation with six months of home detention. Isaiah McLaurin, who was convicted of witness tampering, was sentenced to serve 57 months in federal prison.

U.S. Attorney James P. Kennedy, Jr. stated that the members of the organization sought to profit by pushing poison on addicts, and that their effort to press this poison into counterfeit pills was 'reprehensible'.

The investigation was conducted by the Drug Enforcement Administration, Rochester Resident Office and Scranton PA Resident Office, under the direction of Special Agent-in-Charge Ray Donovan, New York Field Division. The New York State Police, Community Narcotics Enforcement Team Southern Tier, under the direction of Major Mary Clark and Lieutenant Kevin P. Sucher, also assisted in the investigation.

The sentencing is the result of a large-scale investigation that has led to the conviction of 16 members and associates of the opioid manufacturing and trafficking operation. Barrett and Pemberton are the latest defendants to be sentenced in the case.

Source: https://www.justice.gov/usao-wdny/pr/two-elmira-opioid-dealers-sentenced-their-roles-drug-trafficking-ring