Upstate Woman Sentenced to Over 17 Years in Federal Prison in Opioid Conspiracy

Anderson, South Carolina ---- United States Attorney Sherri A. Lydon announced today that Precias K. Freeman, 35, of Lyman, South Carolina, was sentenced in federal court in Anderson for her role in a conspiracy to possess with the intent to distribute hydrocodone.  United States District Timothy M. Cain of Anderson sentenced Freeman to 210 months in the federal Bureau of Prisons.  There is no parole in the federal system.

Evidence presented to the court established that beginning in October 2014, Freeman created fraudulent prescriptions using stolen physician DEA numbers.  She passed the fraudulent prescriptions in local pharmacies throughout the upstate of South Carolina.  In February 2015, Freeman moved her operation into North Carolina because South Carolina law enforcement was devoting substantial resources in an effort to locate her.

The investigation revealed that Freeman usually tried to fill three prescriptions per day.  Records showed that on some days Freeman succeeded at filling up to 13 prescriptions per day. Veteran DEA agents described Freeman as the most prolific prescription passer with whom they had dealt.  Over the course of the conspiracy, law enforcement estimates that Freeman was responsible for illegally obtaining 175,000 tablets of hydrocodone, which she and her co-conspirators then sold across the Upstate. 

The case was investigated by agents of the Greenville County Sheriff’s Office, the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control, the Duncan Police Department, the Simpsonville Police Department, and the United States Drug Enforcement Administration. Assistant United States Attorney Bill Watkins of the Greenville office prosecuted the case.

#####