A 74-year-old woman mailed the equivalent of 150,000 lethal doses of fentanyl as part of a “side hustle” she says helped her afford her medications.
Patricia Parker of Austin, Texas, sent more than 1,000 packages suspected of containing illegal drugs, authorities said. She mailed counterfeit amphetamine pills that contained fentanyl but claims she didn’t know they were laced with the synthetic opioid.
The scheme collapsed in 2022 when she tried to sell counterfeit amphetamines to an undercover Food and Drug Administration agent.
Ten months later, investigators raided her home and found 18,000 pills. Some of the drugs—described as including Adderall, oxycodone, and diazepam—were stored in an ornamental tin.
Parker pleaded guilty in May to conspiracy to distribute fentanyl and distributing more than 310 grams of fentanyl, equal to 150,000 lethal doses. She was sentenced on November 25 to two years of probation, including nine months of home confinement.
Her attorney said Parker had been buying her medications for years from a man known only as “John.” When the COVID-19 pandemic hurt her real estate job, she couldn’t afford her prescriptions. She agreed to distribute John’s drugs in exchange for her own meds—a move her lawyer called a “side hustle.”
That made Parker a “remailer,” someone who splits large drug shipments into smaller parcels for distribution.
Parker said she never knew the packages contained fentanyl.
“I would NEVER have knowingly taken part in anything related to such a dangerous drug,” she wrote in a letter to the judge. “I should have inquired what it was… that fact haunts me to this day.”
Prosecutors argued an “educated, adult woman” should have recognized the risks of distributing counterfeit pills.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for Rhode Island said the case was investigated by the Office of Criminal Investigations, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, and the FDA.
Investigators said Parker trafficked drugs over an extended period. They uncovered her operation after the 2022 undercover purchase and later seized more than 18,000 pills from her home, including Schedule II and IV controlled substances and counterfeit amphetamines containing fentanyl.
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