U.S. District Judge Audrey G. Fleissig sentenced an Ohio man to 65 months in prison on Thursday for arranging the purchase of 200,000 counterfeit pills. Matthew Prunty, 31, from the Dayton area, organized the exchange on June 27, 2021, which involved $46,000 and 2,000 fentanyl-laced pills for the counterfeit prescription drugs at a state park in Franklin County, Missouri.
The transaction was facilitated through an encrypted messaging app that had been compromised by the FBI. Prunty’s courier and co-defendant, De Vonte Cole, was apprehended by the Missouri State Highway Patrol on Interstate 44 following the exchange. The delivered pills contained over 240 grams of fentanyl.
Prunty pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute a controlled substance in January at the U.S. District Court in St. Louis. Cole is currently serving a 30-month sentence after his own guilty plea.
The case was investigated by several agencies including the FBI, Homeland Security Investigations, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, and the Missouri State Highway Patrol. Assistant U.S. Attorney John Ware prosecuted.
This prosecution falls under an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF) operation aimed at identifying and dismantling high-level criminal organizations threatening the United States through a coordinated multi-agency approach.
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