WILMINGTON, NC. (THECOUNT) — Back in the middle of July, Charles Alexis Batts, William Roderick McIntire, and Wanda Gray Moore, were identified as the awful people arrested after nearly 13 pounds of the deadly opioid fentanyl was seized during a North Carolina raid, there’s just one little problem, the seized “fentanyl,” ended up being plain old sugar.
Local news reported that, McIntire, 50; Batts, 46, and Moore, 51, were facing serious charges after a warrant was executed at a home in Wilmington back in the middle of July. The damning report said that more than $2 million worth of fentanyl was found in the home. Oops.
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All three suspects were arrested and sat in jail for over a month. McIntire was given a $5 million bond, while the other two were given $2 million bonds.
And then..
Early on, the New Hanover County Sheriff’s Office tested the several samples of the powder from each bag with a Scott Company Drug Testing CSI field test kit and determined the substance was fentanyl.
But, when the state lab tested the powder again, they realized it wasn’t.
Just last week, new results from a NMS labs private lab test confirmed the true identity of the powder: ordinary sugar.
Brewer said the latest test found the powder to be “a combination of simple and complex carbohydrates,” plain sugars, with no controlled or non-controlled substances mixed in. source
As a result of the snafu, the fentanyl charges against the three suspects were dropped.
New Hanover County Sheriff Ed McMahon called the sugar bust, “one of the largest drug seizures in North Carolina.”
Fentanyl is no joking matter, the powerful narcotic can be deadly in trace amounts. One grain can kill a person, the sheriff said at the time.