A 35-year-old Springfield man was sentenced in federal court Tuesday for his role in drug trafficking and possessing eight firearms. Darrell L. Smith will serve 20 years in federal prison without parole.
Smith was found guilty in January of one count of conspiracy to distribute a fentanyl analogue known as valeryl fentanyl, one count of possessing a fentanyl analogue with the intent to distribute and one count of possessing firearms in furtherance of a drug-trafficking crime. Fentanyl analogues are illicit and often deadlier alterations of fentanyl, according to the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory .
Law enforcement first became involved in the case in August 2019, when they learned Smith and co-defendant Eugene C. Saunders, 51 of Springfield, were selling “heroin” together and that Saunders stored his drugs at Smith’s residence, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Missouri. Upon executing a search warrant, officers seized a large plastic bag and 30 individually packaged sandwich bags containing the fentanyl analogue from Smith’s residence.