LI Drug Dealer Gets 17 Years For Selling Deadly Fentanyl Pills: Feds

CENTRAL ISLIP, NY— A Suffolk County man was sentenced to 17 years in prison for selling fentanyl pills that killed a Suffolk County man, according to Breon Peace, the United States Attorney Eastern District of New York.

Tyheim Smith was sentenced to 17 years in prison by District Judge Gary R. Brown on Monday for selling fentanyl pills marketed as Oxycodone that killed a 25-year-old Bay Shore man, Peace said.

As part of his guilty plea, Smith admitted that the drugs caused the victim's death and that he used firearms in furtherance of his drug trafficking activity, Peace said.

According to Peace, in July 2021, Smith sold the victim pills known as “blues” that the victim believed were oxycodone, but Smith knew they were fentanyl. After ingesting the pills, the man was found dead by family in his Bay Shore home Peace said.

Smith continued to sell the fentanyl pills to undercover officers on five separate occasions for around a month, Peace said. Then in October 2021, the Suffolk County Police Department executed a search of Smith’s home and found 72 fentanyl pills marked as oxycodone and two loaded firearms, high-capacity magazines and ammunition, Peace said.

After being charged by the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office, Smith continued to sell fentanyl while out on bail, until his federal arrest and remand in April 2022, Peace said.

“This prosecution demonstrates my Office’s commitment to confronting the deadly fentanyl epidemic in this district,” Peace said. “Today, the defendant, a drug dealer who carried out his illicit business using illegal guns, was held accountable for distributing fentanyl that caused the tragic poisoning death of a young man on Long Island. The large quantities of fentanyl the defendant distributed all over Suffolk County had a devastating impact on the community, including by taking this young man away from his family. We will continue to work tirelessly to investigate and prosecute those who contribute to this epidemic.”