Fentanyl Scheme Leads To Malvern Man's Guilty Plea

PHILADELPHIA, PA —A 37-year-old Malvern man pleaded guilty to his role in distributing more than 900 pills containing a dangerous fentanyl analogue, a Schedule I controlled substance, officials said Monday.

Ryan Menkins is accused of selling 900 fentanyl pills with a label ETH 446, resembling Oxycodone for $5,600, according to federal prosecutors.

Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid that is 50 times more potent than heroin, according to the Centers For Disease Control and Prevention.

United States District Judge H. Slomsky scheduled sentencing in February.

In August 2019, Menkins and his co-defendant, Kevin Swing, 38 of West Chester were charged with distributing fentanyl disguised as prescription oxycodone.

Swing was sentenced in September 2020 to 6 ½ in federal prison for his role in the distribution.

Swing sold the pills to Menkins for $5,600, according to an investigation by the FBI Newtown Square Resident Agency, and the West Whiteland Township police.

“Prescription medication like oxycodone is already vulnerable to misuse and abuse, but when a substance as dangerous as fentanyl is made to appear to be prescription medication, it can have catastrophic consequences,” said U.S. Attorney Jacqueline Romero said.

Romero said that fentanyl is killing American every day, and Menkins is contributing to the epidemic.

FBI Special Agent Jacqueline Maguire said Menkins pushed pills that looked like regular prescription oxycodone, which in reality contained a drug related to fentanyl.

“Each sale was a potentially deadly transaction for customers — or anyone else who stumbled upon these deceptive drugs,” Maguire said. “The FBI and our law enforcement partners will continue to battle the dealers and traffickers endangering our communities in the name of making money off of the opioid epidemic.”