Oakland man gets 6 years behind bars for dealing fentanyl

A man from Pittsburgh’s Oakland neighborhood has been sentenced to six years in prison for dealing fentanyl.

William Lewis, 31, was convicted of possessing large amounts of fentanyl with the intent to sell the potentially fatal drug, U.S. Attorney Scott W. Brady said.

The sentence comes eight months after Lewis pleaded guilty to the charge in federal court and more than three years since police searched his Oakland home and seized drugs and drug paraphernalia.

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Pittsburgh police officers executing a search warrant found 56 grams of a fentanyl analogue and 19 more packets of fentanyl, according to federal prosecutors. They also found hundreds of stamp bags with fentanyl inside labeled “Ferrari,” along with other materials used for distributing and selling the substance.

Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid painkiller that can be 50 to 100 times stronger than heroin, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports. As little as 2 or 3 nanograms of fentanyl per milliliter of blood can be deadly.

Lewis had been held in custody since his guilty plea last May.

U.S. District Judge David S. Cercone said that his sentence “was sufficient but not greater than necessary,” according to federal prosecutors.

In addition to Pittsburgh police, Brady thanked the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and Postal Inspection Service with assisting in the investigation that led to the prosecution of Lewis.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Tonya Sulia Goodman prosecuted the case.

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