MIAMI \u2014 A Port St. Lucie man was sentenced to 15 years in federal prison after authorities said he attempted to receive thousands of fentanyl pills through the mail and kept a firearm alongside drug proceeds and narcotics distribution materials.<\/p>\n
U.S. District Judge Aileen M. Cannon sentenced Juneem Jermain Barnes, 34, to 180 months in federal prison after he pleaded guilty to attempting to possess with intent to distribute 400 grams or more of a mixture or substance containing fentanyl, possession with intent to distribute 40 grams or more of a mixture or substance containing fentanyl, and possessing a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime.<\/p>\n
According to court documents, Barnes attempted to receive a mailed package containing at least 15,000 fentanyl pills at his residence. Authorities said the pills were pressed to resemble pharmaceutical oxycodone.<\/p>\n
Law enforcement officers later executed a search warrant at Barnes\u2019s home, where they found another parcel containing fentanyl pills disguised as oxycodone, about three pounds of marijuana, more than $35,000 in cash, a money counting machine and other narcotics distribution materials.<\/p>\n
Investigators also recovered a Glock Model 19X 9mm handgun near the cash and money counting machine, according to authorities.<\/p>\n
In total, law enforcement seized about 2,000 grams of fentanyl.<\/p>\n
\u201cFentanyl is killing Americans every day, and those who distribute it are fueling that crisis for profit,\u201d U.S. Attorney Jason A. Reding Qui\u00f1ones for the Southern District of Florida said in a statement. \u201cThis defendant trafficked thousands of counterfeit pills designed to look like legitimate prescription medication and kept a loaded firearm alongside drug proceeds and distribution tools. That combination of fentanyl and firearms is a direct threat to public safety.\u201d<\/p>\n
The investigation was conducted by the Drug Enforcement Administration\u2019s Miami Field Division and West Palm Beach District Office, along with the U.S. Postal Inspection Service\u2019s Miami Division, with assistance from the FBI\u2019s West Palm Beach Resident Agency, the St. Lucie County Sheriff\u2019s Office, Palm Beach County Sheriff\u2019s Office, Palm Beach Gardens Police Department and Jupiter Police Department.<\/p>\n
Assistant U.S. Attorney Daniel E. Funk prosecuted the case.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MIAMI \u2014 A Port St. Lucie man was sentenced to 15 years in federal prison after authorities said…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":263109,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[171,173,172],"class_list":["post-263108","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-port-st-lucie","tag-port-st-lucie","tag-port-st-lucie-headlines","tag-port-st-lucie-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263108","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=263108"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263108\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/263109"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=263108"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=263108"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=263108"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}