A St. Petersburg man is facing federal drug and firearms charges after investigators say a 1-year-old child overdosed on fentanyl while in his care.<\/p>\n
Rayshawn Smith, 31, has been charged by criminal complaint with distribution of a controlled substance resulting in great bodily injury, possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime, drug distribution and possession of a firearm and ammunition by a convicted felon.<\/p>\n
Federal prosecutors said Smith could face up to life in prison if convicted on all counts.<\/p>\n
According to the complaint, investigators say Smith sold methamphetamine, fentanyl and other drugs to a confidential informant between May 2025 and January 2026.<\/p>\n
Prosecutors allege that on Nov. 13, 2025, a 1-year-old child ingested fentanyl while in Smith\u2019s sole care, causing an overdose that required emergency treatment and life-saving measures at a hospital.<\/p>\n
Authorities said agents later executed a search warrant Jan. 14 at Smith\u2019s residence, where they found drugs, firearms and drug paraphernalia.<\/p>\n
Investigators said Smith was arrested separately in a vehicle, where officers also recovered additional drugs and packaging materials.<\/p>\n
The case was investigated by the Drug Enforcement Administration and the St. Petersburg Police Department.<\/p>\n
Federal charges filed through a criminal complaint are allegations, and the case will proceed through federal court.<\/p>\n
Click here<\/a> to download our free news, weather and smart TV apps. And click here<\/a> to stream Channel 9 Eyewitness News live.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/beda08358d6db9816e7b0d066edd22cf.jpeg\"\/)
<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A St. Petersburg man is facing federal drug and firearms charges after investigators say a 1-year-old child overdosed…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":216639,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[28593,82220,98522,6862,15186,98701,1069,28594,98700,41676,202,204,203,199,201,200],"class_list":["post-216638","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-convicted-felon","tag-criminal-complaint","tag-drug-distribution","tag-drug-enforcement-administration","tag-federal-charges","tag-federal-drug","tag-fentanyl","tag-possession-of-a-firearm","tag-rayshawn-smith","tag-smith","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216638","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=216638"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/216638\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/216639"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=216638"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=216638"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=216638"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}