He smuggled fentanyl into a Florida jail, cops say. Five inmates overdosed within a week.
A Pasco County man will spend more than two decades behind bars for selling fentanyl inside a jail, which caused numerous inmates to overdose, according to the Drug Enforcement Administration.
Timothy CathCart, 33, was sentenced Wednesday to 27 years in federal prison after pleading guilty to conspiracy to distribute a controlled substance.
According to the DEA, CathCart was originally booked into a Pasco jail for a traffic violation on Jan. 24, 2019. Minutes before his arrest, however, he hid about 14 grams of fentanyl mixed with two other substances. This allowed him to smuggle the narcotics inside the jail.
Three inmates overdosed and suffered “serious bodily injury” in the two days following his arrest, agents say. Each admitted that CathCart had sold them the fentanyl.
By the end of his first week, two additional inmates would overdose. One was revived while the other died. An autopsy linked the individual’s death to “fentanyl toxicity,” according to the DEA.
CathCart later confessed to intentionally sneaking the narcotics inside the jail during a subsequent interview with law enforcement, his criminal complaint says.
Jail records show CathCart spent more than a year in prison for various crimes including petty and grand theft
This story was originally published March 12, 2020 at 5:46 PM.
