Grand Junction Man Arrested For Manufacturing Fake Xanax Pills In His Apartment

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The Daily Sentinel in Grand Junction, Colorado recently reported on the arrest of a local man who was manufacturing counterfeit pills made with fentanyl in his apartment and selling them. Richard A. Henry’s home was searched by Western Colorado Drug Task Force investigators, Mesa County sheriff’s deputies, and a Grand Junction police officer. In it, they found a pill press, several hundred counterfeit Xanax pills, several hundred “small blue pills” that Henry said he believed were made with fentanyl, and bags of white powder, one of which tested positive for fentanyl.

Detectives described Henry as cooperative, admitting he purchased the pill press online for $499. He said he normally only made counterfeit Xanax pills, but there was no mention of when or why he began to make the “small blue pills.” Henry stated he purchased the necessary supplies on the Internet and, according to the police report, sold only a small number of pills online “saying that he did not want to peddle his wares close to home.”

Whether that is true or not, recent news articles show multiple counterfeit pill incidents in that area of Colorado. A federal grand jury recently indicted Christopher Huggett of Grand Junction in the death of one individual and the non-fatal overdose of another from pills he sold. The Daily Sentinel reported that a second man has just been indicted in the same case, and in June, the newspaper reported on the death of Ashley Romero, a 32-year-old mother who died after taking what is believed to be counterfeit fentanyl pill to help her with the pain caused by her pancreatitis.