A Maryland man will spend the next decade in federal prison for selling fentanyl to a buyer who was actually an undercover officer with the Fairfax County Police Department.
U.S. District Judge Michael Nachmanoff sentenced Jahrulle Terrence Whyte t0 10 years or 120 months in prison yesterday (Thursday) after the 29-year-old Glen Burnie resident pleaded guilty earlier this year to distributing and possessing with the intent to distribute over 400 grams of fentanyl.
According to court documents, Whyte first met with the FCPD’s undercover narcotics detective and an unidentified source who arranged the deal at an unspecified location in Fairfax County on Oct. 12, 2023.
At that meeting, Whyte sold 200 counterfeit pills designed to look like oxycodone that actually contained fentanyl and other drugs, and he agreed to sell the detective another 15,000 fentanyl pills in the future. The “confidential source” also asked Whyte to bring 2,000 pills to the future deal “that were intended for another individual,” a Drug Enforcement Administration officer said in an affidavit.
The arranged deal took place on Oct. 25, 2023 at an unnamed hotel in Fairfax County, where Whyte allegedly sold the 15,000 pills to the undercover detective for $97,500. He was subsequently arrested, and all 17,000 pills brought to the meeting were seized.
Whyte was indicted by a grand jury on two drug distribution charges on May 29. He pleaded guilty to one of the charges on June 20 in an agreement that included an admission of guilt, dismissal of the other charge and immunity from further prosecution in this case.
The 10-year prison sentence is the mandatory minimum term imposed by federal law, according to the plea agreement.
Ann Mason Rigby, the assistant federal public defender who represented Whyte in the case, declined to comment.
After seeing a surge in fatal opioid overdoses involving fentanyl in 2020 into 2023, opioid overdoses in the Fairfax Health District are down so far this year compared to last year, according to data collected by the Fairfax County Health Department. As of June 30, there have been 42 fatal opioid overdoses in 2024.
The DEA says it has seized over 47.7 million fentanyl pills nationwide this year.
Photo via DEA
