Crime & Safety
Woman Gets Prison Time For Selling Counterfeit Opioid Pills
Roswell resident Cathine Lavina Sellers, 39, sold 100 oxycodone tablets laced with fentanyl to an undercover agent.
ROSWELL, GA — A Roswell woman will serve three years in federal prison for selling oxycodone tablets laced with fentanyl to an undercover agent with the Drug Enforcement Administration.
Cathine Lavina Sellers, 39, was sentenced on Thursday after pleading guilty on Jan. 30 to possession with intent to distribute fentanyl and two synthetic opioids, furanyl-fentanyl and U-47700. Her prison sentence will be followed by three years to serve on probation, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Georgia said.
"This drug dealer deliberately disguised pills to make them look like oxycodone tablets, laced them with deadly fentanyl and two synthetic opioids, and then sold the fake pills out of her residence in Roswell,” said U.S. Attorney BJay Pak. “These counterfeit pills posed a particular danger to our communities, as they are comparably 50 times more potent than prescription oxycodone and present a substantially higher risk of overdose.”
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On June 13, 2017, Sellers sold about 100 pills for $1,400 from her Roswell townhouse to a confidential source working with the DEA, according to federal prosecutors. DEA agents searched the townhouse later in the evening and retrieved the cash from the earlier sale. They also unearthed about 100 more counterfeit pills concealed in a dietary supplement bottle, a loaded Glock handgun and two magazines.
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Sellers was arrested, and a lab test confirmed the knock-off pills contained furany-fentanyl, U-47700 and fentanyl, none of which are found in legitimate oxycodone tablets. The counterfeit pills are similar in appearance to a real 30 mg Roxicodone tablet, but they are a lighter shade of blue than the regular pills.
The case was investigated by the DEA and Assistant U.S. Attorney John T. DeGenova prosecuted the case.
Photo: Cathine Sellers. Credit: Fulton County Jail
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