U.S. District Judge Audrey G. Fleissig sentenced an Ohio man to 5 years (65 months) in prison for arranging to buy 200,000 counterfeit pills. The sentencing took place on Thursday.
Matthew Prunty, 31, of the Dayton area, facilitated the transaction on June 27, 2021, by sending another man to exchange $46,000 and 2,000 fentanyl-laced pills for 200,000 counterfeit prescription pills. The exchange occurred at a state park in Franklin County, Missouri, and was arranged via an encrypted messaging app that the FBI had taken over.
After the exchange, De Vonte Cole, Prunty’s courier and co-defendant, was arrested by the Missouri State Highway Patrol on Interstate 44. The pills delivered by Cole contained over 240 grams of fentanyl.
Prunty pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute a controlled substance in January in U.S. District Court in St. Louis. Cole, who also pleaded guilty, is serving a 30-month sentence.
The investigation involved the FBI, Homeland Security Investigations, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, and the Missouri State Highway Patrol. Assistant U.S. Attorney John Ware prosecuted the case.
