WASHINGTON — A Maryland woman was sentenced to two years in prison Friday for her role in a fentanyl pill-pressing operation and drug trafficking operation.
According to the Department of Justice, 30-year-old Laura Garvin pleaded guilty to conspiracy with intent to distribute fentanyl in May 2023. In addition to the two years in prison, U.S. District Judge Amit P. Mehta ordered Garvin to serve 24 months of supervised release.
Prosecutors say Garvin helped sell real and fake oxycodone pills and powder cocaine in and around D.C. and Maryland. Additionally, she allowed other members to store an industrial pill press at her home, along with a tub filled with fentanyl pill-making mix.
Officials say the operation started in May 2020 and lasted until September 2022. Garvin admitted that she was accountable for somewhere between 40 and 160 grams of a mixture and substance containing a detectable amount of fentanyl.
In August 2021, the FBI began looking into a drug trafficking group running a fentanyl pill-pressing operation. During the investigation, authorities learned that the group possessed at least three pill presses – including one industrial rotary pill machine – used to press fentanyl into counterfeit prescription pills. The pills were made to appear as legitimate prescription oxycodone and other prescription drugs which the group then distributed throughout the District and Maryland.
The FBI executed a search warrant at a home in the 1300 block of 4th Street in Southeast, D.C. on March 29, 2022. During the search, agents seized Zip-loc baggies of pills and loose powder, totaling more than 516 pills and more than 76 grams of a mixture and substance containing fentanyl.
Garvin was arrested in September 2022 and placed on home confinement while awaiting sentencing, until officials discovered she tested positive for cocaine and reportedly continued to sell oxycodone pills. She was removed from pre-trial supervision and taken into custody on November 9, 2023.
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