Temple Hills Drug Smuggler Used Laundry Softener Bottles To Ship Fentanyl: Prosecutor

PRINCE GEORGE'S COUNTY, MD — A drug trafficker who smuggled fake oxycodone between airports in laundry softener bottles as part of a drug ring has been sentenced.

Andre Malik Edmond, 23, of Temple Hills pleaded guilty Feb. 28 to conspiracy to distribute 400 grams or more of fentanyl.

The DEA launched an investigation after a young woman in Washington, D.C., Diamond Lynch, took one pill and died as a result of acute fentanyl intoxication. In addition to investigating and prosecuting the death resulting case, law enforcement followed the evidence and uncovered a network of traffickers who shipped fentanyl from Mexico to Los Angeles to the District of Columbia.

Since then, investigators have seized more than 450,000 fentanyl pills, 1.5 kilograms of fentanyl powder and 30 firearms, the prosecution said.

According to court documents, Edmond and his co-conspirators smuggled the pills on flights to the DMV in luggage and personal carry-on items or by shipping them using U.S. mail or commercial carriers.

In one instance, Edmond told his Los Angeles-based supplier he wanted to purchase 75,000 fentanyl pills at 39 cents per pill. Edmonds flew to southern California to complete the deal in January 2023, prosecutors said.

On Jan. 30, 2023, DEA agents seized a checked bag at Dulles International Airport that had just arrived on a flight from Los Angeles International Airport. Edmond and his traveling companion, a minor, were both passengers on the flight. The bag was checked in the traveling companion’s name and was searched at the baggage carousel.

Packed in the bag were six Downy Unstopables containers — all of which were filled with fentanyl-laced counterfeit oxycodone pills, totaling more than 70,000 pills and weighing about 8.2 kilograms. As agents searched the bag, Edmond tried to flee before authorities caught him in a parking lot, prosecutors said.

Before being charged in this case, while Edmond was on pretrial release for state charges in Maryland, he continued to traffic drugs. On June 1, 2023, federal law enforcement officers executed a search warrant at Edmond’s home and recovered about 1.6 kilograms of fentanyl-laced fake oxycodone pills. The majority of the pills were found inside a Downy Unstopables container, with the remainder packaged in several baggies.

Edmond has been sentenced to 130 months in prison, followed by five years of supervised release.