Ohio Man Sentenced to 65 Months in Prison for Swapping Fentanyl, Cash for Counterfeit Pills

ST. LOUIS – U.S. District Judge Audrey G. Fleissig on Thursday sentenced an Ohio man who arranged to buy 200,000 counterfeit pills to 65 months in prison.

On June 27, 2021, Matthew Prunty, 31, of the Dayton area, sent another man to exchange $46,000 and 2,000 pills containing fentanyl for 200,000 counterfeit prescription pills at a state park in Franklin County, Missouri. The exchange had been arranged via an encrypted messaging app with an account that had been taken over by the FBI. Prunty’s courier and co-defendant, De Vonte Cole, was arrested after the exchange by the Missouri State Highway Patrol on Interstate 44. The pills Cole delivered contained a total of more than 240 grams of fentanyl. 

Prunty pleaded guilty in January in U.S. District Court in St. Louis to conspiracy to distribute a controlled substance. Cole is serving a 30-month sentence after also pleading guilty.

The FBI, Homeland Security Investigations, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service and the Missouri State Highway Patrol investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney John Ware prosecuted the case.

This prosecution is part of an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF) operation. OCDETF identifies, disrupts, and dismantles the highest-level criminal organizations that threaten the United States using a prosecutor-led, intelligence-driven, multi-agency approach. Additional information about the OCDETF Program can be found at https://www.justice.gov/OCDETF.