A 49-year-old man released from Arizona prison last year is now facing 11 felony charges after Gilbert police say text messages recovered from a dead man’s phone tied him directly to a fatal overdose. Frederick McCullough was arrested following an undercover investigation into alleged methamphetamine and cocaine dealing across the Valley, with detectives saying he continued negotiating drug sales with the victim right up until the man’s death on September 1.
According to FOX 10 Phoenix, the Gilbert Police Department Drug Enforcement Unit reviewed text messages on the victim’s cell phone that showed exchanges between McCullough and the victim arranging drug purchases. Court documents cited by the outlet indicate McCullough had been out of the Arizona Department of Corrections for less than a year at the time of his arrest, following a prior drug sales case.
Undercover Buys Led Straight to McCullough
The station’s report details how undercover officers bought 1.8 grams of cocaine from McCullough for $130 near University Drive and Price Road in Tempe on September 3. During that same operation, McCullough also provided roughly 16 grams of methamphetamine to an undercover detective and offered to partner on larger cocaine purchases going forward, per the same account.
When officers searched McCullough, they found two baggies of suspected methamphetamine in his pants pocket, marked with yellow symbols matching those used in the undercover deal, the report notes. A search warrant executed at his Phoenix apartment on East Baseline Road on September 10 turned up additional crystal substances and packaging baggies, and officers identified a cell phone on a vehicle’s passenger floorboard as the same number used during the undercover operation.
Seven Prior Felony Drug Convictions
A prosecutor told the court that Gilbert police believed McCullough may have sold the fatal dose that led to the overdose death, according to the FOX 10 Phoenix report. The prosecutor also said McCullough had seven prior felony convictions for drug sales, along with prior convictions for grand theft, sex with a minor age three years or younger, and DUI…