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Laura Garvin, 30, of Annapolis, was sentenced Friday, Jan. 12 to 24 months in prison for her role in a drug-trafficking group “running a fentanyl pill-pressing operation in and around Washington, DC and Maryland,” US Attorney Matthew Graves announced.
The FBI launched an investigation into a drug-trafficking group running a fentanyl pill-pressing operation in and around Washington, DC and Maryland in August 2021.
Investigators found that the group had at least three presses, including an industrial rotary pill machine used to press fentanyl into counterfeit prescription pills. The pills were made to look like legitimate oxycodone and other prescription drugs to be sold throughout the area.
A search warrant executed at an apartment on the 1300 block of 4th Street in Southeast DC in March 2022 turned up Zip-loc bags, more than 516 pills and more than 76 grams of a mixture and substance containing fentanyl.
Garvin had been to the apartment on several occasions.
Detectives found that Garvin helped sell real and fake oxycodone pills, as well as powder cocaine, between May 2020 and September 2022, officials say.
She also “allowed members of the drug trafficking conspiracy to store one of the group’s industrial pill presses at her home along with a tub filled with fentanyl pill making mix” following the discovery of their Laurel, Maryland drug lab, authorities said.
She was arrested in September 2022 and put on home confinement; however, she tested positive for cocaine and allegedly continued to sell oxycodone pills before she was ultimately removed from pre-trial supervision and taken into custody in November 2023.
Garvin admitted accountability for between 40 and 160 grams of a mixture and substance containing a detectable amount of fentanyl.
She pleaded guilty in May 2023 to conspiracy with intent to distribute fentanyl. In addition to prison time, Garvin is also required to serve 24 months of supervised release.
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