Police Seize Hundreds of Thousands of Fake Pills in South Carolina and Two Presses

Bag of pills abandoned on a Rock Hill, SC street
Source: WSOC-TV

WSOC-TV in Charlotte reported that raids at multiple locations with ties to a drug ring producing counterfeit oxycodone pills most likely caused someone to panic because thousands of them were found dumped on a street. The U.S. Attorney for South Carolina announced a large-scale drug bust stretched from Charlotte, North Carolina down to Rock Hill, South Carolina. The York County drug officers began their investigation in November 2016 but got federal agencies involved once it became clear how big this case was getting.

A search of one house in Rock Hill produced two pill presses that authorities said were used to make counterfeit oxycodone pills. Raids happened at sixteen other homes. Notices were placed on the doors leading into the properties saying they were potentially hazardous because of the potential for residue chemicals to be left behind after the drug-making process.

Marvin Brown of the York County Multi-Jurisdictional Drug Enforcement Unit said, “We are seizing hundreds of thousands of pills. Not a hundred pills, not a thousand pills, but hundreds of thousands of pills.” Brown said that it was lucky that a child did not find pills left on the street because, “They’re a bright blue, purple kind of color, and if some child would come along and open one of the bags and swallow those pills, it’d probably be fatal.”

The U.S. Department of Justice has indictments against 14 people, 11 of whom are already in custody. Agents involved in these searches said that this was just the beginning and to expect more in the future.