Local district attorney holds drugs dealers accountable amid rising overdose deaths

CATAWBA COUNTY, N.C. — Since the beginning of 2022, deputies in Catawba County said they have investigated 26 overdose deaths, many of them linked to the powerful drug fentanyl.

Getting dangerous drugs off the streets and prosecuting dealers is challenging.

For three cases in the county, there are indictments for death by distribution of controlled substances. According to court documents, the drug that led to the deaths in the cases was fentanyl.

Julie Wright showed Channel 9′s Dave Faherty some of the last photos of her niece, Brianna Culpepper. She said the 25-year-old struggled with substance abuse but was also trying to overcome her addiction after her life changed with a baby boy.

“He sees pictures. We talk about her. We do all that we can. We don’t want him to think she was bad. She was not aware what was going to happen to her. She wanted to live,” Wright said.

After deputies responded to more than two dozen overdose deaths in the county this year, the sheriff’s office admits there are challenges in making an arrest after an overdose.

“It’s not just that the person in question died from a drug overdose, it’s that the drug they died from was purchased from a drug dealer in the same time frame that we can prove that the sale resulted in a death,” said Capt. Aaron Turk, with the Catawba County Sheriff’s Office.

Deputies said they use cellphone records and other investigative tools to establish a link. Prosecutors now have three indictments for death by distribution in Catawba County, including for a case where a 17-year-old boy overdosed and died in Maiden.

Wright hopes other families don’t have to suffer the way Culpepper’s family has.

“It’s horrible. A nightmare, a total nightmare,” she said.

Faherty checked in Caldwell County, where it has had a successful conviction of death by distribution, and learned the person was sentenced to 12 years of prison time.

(WATCH BELOW: York Co. sheriff’s drug chemist says they see fentanyl more than any other drug)

York Co. sheriff’s drug chemist says they see fentanyl more than any other drug

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