WASHINGTON, D.C. (WRIC) — A Washington, D.C. man has been sentenced to 16 years in prison for distributing fentanyl, some of which caused a fatal overdose in Virginia in February of 2021.
According to the United States Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia, 47-year-old Andrew Cooper was selling fentanyl out of his home on the 1900 block of Capitol Avenue NE in Washington, D.C.’s Ivy City neighborhood between February and November of 2021.
In February of 2021, a woman and her male friend went to Cooper’s home from Virginia to buy fentanyl several times. On Feb. 16, 2021, the woman went to Cooper’s home to buy fentanyl and, when she got back to Virginia, saw the friend dead in a bathroom with a syringe containing fentanyl nearby. It was later determined that he had died from acute fentanyl intoxication.
Cooper would continue to sell fentanyl for several months after this incident. Between August and October of 2021, undercover police would buy fentanyl from him five times. On Nov. 10, 2021, Cooper was arrested and officer searched his home, finding narcotics which included fentanyl, as well as a firearm and $74,430 in cash.
While investigating Cooper, police determined that he had been selling drugs — including the one which caused the fatal overdose — since February and that he had maintained a bank account which contained an additional $32,650.
On September 16, 2022, Cooper pleaded guilty to distribution of fentanyl. As part of his plea agreement, Cooper admitted that the more than $100,000 recovered by police was made from selling drugs and agreed to forfeit the money to the government. Cooper was sentenced to 16 years in prison and 36 months of supervised release.
“This sentence reflects the serious consequences awaiting anyone who callously litters our communities with Fentanyl,” said U.S. Attorney Matthew M. Graves. “Anyone considering peddling this poison needs to understand that they are likely to cause someone’s death, and that they will be held accountable for that death.”
