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Leach Sentenced to 20 Years in Fentanyl Death

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Jeremial Leach, 20, pleaded guilty to selling fentanyl on Snapchat

A young Evansville man has been sentenced to 20 years in federal prison for selling a deadly dose of fentanyl via Snapchat. WNIN’s John Gibson has details:

The U.S. Attorney’s Office says 20-year-old Jeremial Leach also faces five years of supervised release, after pleading guilty to one count of Distribution of Fentanyl Resulting in Death and two other counts.

The attorney’s office says Leach is responsible for dealing fentanyl resulting in at least three overdoses, one of which led to the 2022 death of a 19-year-old in Evansville.

Authorities say Leach advertised fentanyl-laced counterfeit pills on Snapchat to hundreds of recipients using the alias “Mel.”

U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Indiana, Zachary Myers, says the sentence imposed on Leach should serve as a warning that fentanyl kills -- and selling it will earn you “decades in federal prison.”

The Drug Enforcement Administration says as little as two milligrams of fentanyl can be fatal, depending on a person’s body size, tolerance, and past usage.