A Dayton man is alleged to have trafficked valeryl fentanyl, a relatively new Chinese analogue of the opioid that has ravaged the area in recent years.
A criminal complaint filed in Dayton’s U.S. District Court alleges Raven E. Bean III, 28, of Dayton, trafficked more than 10 grams of the drug. A conviction could mean a prison sentence from five to 40 years and a $5 million fine.
Bean, who was booked into the Butler County Jail, was released from incarceration with conditions over the objection of prosecutors during a Friday afternoon detention hearing. Bean has a preliminary hearing scheduled for March 19.
U.S. Dept. of Justice spokeswoman Jennifer Thornton said valeryl fentanyl became a scheduled drug in September 2017.
“This and other analogues have significantly increased on the streets since 2016,” Thornton said, “and they have caused thousands of overdoses and deaths across the country since then.”
Special Agent Cheryl Davis of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration in Detroit said the drug often is in pill form and has made its way from Texas to Ohio.
“Currently, there is no approved medical or industrial use for valeryl and the substance’s existence can be credited to drug traffickers,” Davis said. “Like many other synthetic opioids, China is a main supplier of this fentanyl analogue.”
Montgomery County Coroner Kent Harshbarger said he sees valeryl fentanyl “from time to time” and that it wasn’t one they were able to identify until “more and more testing” technology came along.
The probable cause complaint written by FBI task force office Fred Zollers said law enforcement tried to stop a silver 2009 Chevrolet Malibu on Dec. 18, 2018, for a window tint violation.
Bean fled the stop, drove recklessly while breaking many traffic laws and parked at an apartment on West Riverview Avenue, Zollers wrote.
The complaint said Bean didn’t lay on the ground as requested and was captured after a short foot pursuit. Zollers wrote Bean was found with two cell phones, $398 and two plastic bags of suspected marijuana.
Zollers wrote agents found $1,458, two baggies with a powdery substances, a digital scale and two more cell phones in the Malibu.
Zollers wrote that during a jail phone call, Bean told a female he lied to investigators when he said a second person had been in the car.
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© 2019 the Dayton Daily News (Dayton, Ohio)
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