A Fort Pierce man, Derron Nathaniel Johnson, 28, has been sentenced to eight years in federal prison for drug trafficking involving fentanyl and cocaine. U.S. District Judge Aileen M. Cannon imposed the 96-month sentence after Johnson entered a guilty plea, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Florida.
Court records show Johnson conducted two drug sales in Fort Pierce: 13.92 grams of fentanyl on July 6, 2022, and 84.1 grams of cocaine on August 19, 2022. The investigation involved the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Miami Field Division, the Saint Lucie County Sheriff’s Office, and the Okeechobee County Sheriff’s Office.
The DEA reports that synthetic opioids, including fentanyl, are a leading cause of overdose deaths. According to the CDC, more than 150 people die each day in the United States from overdoses involving synthetic opioids. In Florida, over 5,622 people died in 2022 from overdoses linked to fentanyl and its analogs…