Fentanyl Distributor Sentenced to 20 Years

Asheville -- May 10, 2023: Dena J. King, US Attorney for the Western
District of North Carolina: 

Megan Emily Tate, 29, of Sylva, North Carolina, was sentenced to 20 years in prison followed by
five years of supervised release for trafficking a drug that contained fentanyl and resulted in two overdoses.

Tate was arrested by Jackson County Sheriff's Office deputies in April 2021 for alleged fentanyl distribution,
according to court records and the sentencing hearing that day. Tate provided two prisoners with fentanyl when she was being held at the Jackson County Detention Center, which led to their overdosing. As a result, one overdose victim was put on a ventilator and both overdose patients were taken to the hospital. Later on, both victims who had overdosed on drugs recovered. The investigation into the drug overdose incidents led law enforcement to the conclusion, per court documents, that Tate had given each victim a substance containing fentanyl, which she had concealed and later retrieved from her body cavity while in the detention facility.

Tate entered a guilty plea to distribution of a fentanyl-containing drug mixture on January 30, 2023. She is now being held by the federal government, but when a federal facility is designated, she will be moved into the care of the federal Bureau of Prisons.

U.S. Attorney King praised the Jackson County Sheriff's Office and the DEA's Asheville Post of Duty for their investigations into this case in his announcement.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas Kent of the U.S. Attorney's Office in Charlotte.      

Information Source: United States Attorney's Office Western District of North Carolina April 20, 2023