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Rashied Smith, age 41, of Central Islip, was sentenced to seven years in prison in Suffolk County Court on Thursday, May 18, after pleading guilty to drug charges.
His sentence came a month after another man, 28-year-old Qhamel Dickerson, of Huntington Station, was sentenced to five years behind bars for copping to drug charges.
According to the Suffolk County DA’s Office, both Smith and Dickerson had sent text messages arranging to sell the women drugs shortly before they overdosed.
On June 23, 2022, Suffolk County Police officers found a 43-year-old woman dead from an overdose at a home in Mastic.
Investigators determined that Smith had text her the night before and agreed to sell her crack cocaine and fentanyl. The two later met in person and completed the drug deal.
Within 48 hours of the woman’s death, Smith sold crack cocaine to an undercover detective, and a couple days after that sold cocaine and fentanyl to the same undercover detective.
A search of his home turned up a loaded semi-automatic handgun, along with crack cocaine and a digital scale, prosecutors said.
On April 27, 2023 he pleaded guilty to the following charges:
- Two counts of third-degree criminal sale of a controlled substance (felony)
- Criminal possession of a weapon (felony)
In addition to his prison time, a judge sentenced him to five years of post-release supervision.
Dickerson admitted to selling counterfeit oxycodone pills to a 23-year-old East Northport woman who died from an overdose on July 5, 2022.
The pills had the same color, shape, and markings of oxycodone, but actually contained fentanyl.
Text messages on the victim’s cell phone confirmed that she had bought the drugs from Dickerson, prosecutors said.
He was arrested in September 2022 after selling the same type of pills to an undercover Suffolk County Police detective.
On March 10, 2023 he pleaded guilty to two counts of third-degree criminal sale of a controlled substance, a felony. At his sentencing on April 18, a judge also ordered him to serve two years of post-release supervision.
“The fentanyl epidemic has claimed the lives of two more innocent women, and the unfortunate reality is that this problem will continue to worsen without action,” Suffolk County DA Raymond Tierney said in a statement.
“The dangers of fentanyl are not breaking news anymore. Not in Suffolk County, not in Albany, and not to the drug dealers who continue to push this poison into our communities.”
Tierney called on state lawmakers to pass legislation that would allow drug dealers to be held criminally liable for the overdose deaths.
“We owe it to the victims and their families to hold all dealers of fentanyl accountable for the deaths they cause,” he said.
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