Federal Jury Convicts Richfield Man for Fentanyl Conspiracy

MINNEAPOLIS – A federal jury found a Richfield man guilty of conspiracy to distribute fentanyl, announced U.S. Attorney Andrew M. Luger.

Following a two-day trial before Chief Judge Patrick J. Schiltz, Marquice Shaquan Morris, 26, was convicted on one count of conspiracy to distribute fentanyl.

According to evidence presented at trial, from spring 2022 to October 2022, Morris and his coconspirator Brandon Pierre Johnson, 34, of Chicago, conspired to distribute approximately 83,000 fentanyl pills, weighing about 18 pounds, or 8.3 kilograms. In late September 2022, Morris and Johnson agreed to fly from Minnesota to Arizona to pick up the fentanyl, then Johnson would bring the drugs back to Minnesota on a bus, to give them back to Morris. In return, Morris agreed to pay Johnson $1,500. On September 30, 2022, Morris and Johnson flew from Minnesota to Arizona and obtained the fentanyl pills from Morris’s source. Morris then flew home, while Johnson boarded a Greyhound bus to St. Paul. Johnson carried the pills along with a loaded 9 mm handgun onto the bus, in a duffle bag. When Johnson’s bus stopped in Amarillo, Texas, law enforcement officers found and seized the fentanyl pills and the gun. Officers arrested Johnson.

On March 17, 2023, Johnson pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court before Chief Judge Patrick J. Schiltz to conspiracy to distribute fentanyl. Johnson is scheduled to be sentenced on August 7, 2023.

Morris is scheduled to be sentenced on October 12, 2023.

This case is the result of an investigation conducted by the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Amarillo Police Department.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Matthew D. Forbes, Harry M. Jacobs, and Thomas M. Hollenhorst tried the case.