TBI issues warning about recent spike in fake percocet pills being sold on the streets

Special Agents with the Drug Investigation Division of the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation are warning the public about a recent dramatic increase in the prevalence of counterfeit prescription drugs in Tennessee.

UPDATE: 07/09/16...An investigation by Special Agents with the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation and other Middle Tennessee law enforcement agencies into the distribution of fake Percocet pills has resulted in the arrest of a Murfreesboro man.

TBI Special Agents with the Drug Investigation Division joined detectives with the Murfreesboro Police Department, the Rutherford County Sheriff’s Department and the Drug Enforcement Administration, in tracking the source of pills that have contributed to multiple drugs overdoses that have occurred in the Murfreesboro area in the past week.

Counterfeit Percocet pills laced with Fentanyl have resulted in the deaths of three individuals, and have accounted for as many as 15 other drug overdoses in Rutherford County. During the course of the investigation, Agents developed information that Johnny L. Williams, 30, was an individual responsible for selling the fake pills.

On Friday night, Agents arrested Williams at his home on Mason Pike in Murfreesboro. Williams was charged with one count of Sale of Schedule II Controlled Substance and was booked into the Rutherford County Jail on a $100,000 bond. The investigation remains ongoing and additional charges and subjects are anticipated.

In recent days, Agents in the Middle Tennessee area have seen a spike in adulterated Percocet pills being sold on the street and are warning users that these counterfeit pills have deadly consequences. Active and ongoing investigations continue into the source of these pills.

These counterfeit drugs have a very similar look and appearance to legitimate Percocet pills, but contain potentially lethal ingredients that cause law enforcement officials immediate concern. Numerous overdoses across Middle Tennessee are being attributed to this batch of dangerous drugs, and Agents are warning users that more overdoses and deaths are likely as these pills make their way to users.

“We want to make the public abundantly clear that these pills being made in clandestine labs present a very real and life-threatening danger to anyone who takes them,” says TBI Deputy Director Jason Locke. “We can’t stress enough that the pills people buy on the streets can and do contain deadly elements.”

In the last year, dozens of case submissions from counties across Tennessee have shared a common, concerning trend: Pills shaped, colored, and stamped to look like a particular type of prescription medication have proven to be something different in laboratory analysis.

For example, in May 2015, a Tennessee law enforcement agency recovered what appeared to be several 30mg pills of oxycodone during a traffic stop. Each was the same size and featured the signature A/215 stamp characteristic of oxycodone. However, laboratory analysis performed by TBI Forensic Scientists indicated the pills were counterfeit and did not contain oxycodone. Instead, they contained fentanyl, a pain killer 50 times as potent as heroin that can be deadly in high doses.