A 21-year-old Sierra Vista woman was arrested by federal agents last week after they found her in possession of about 2,000 counterfeit Xanax pills they said she was likely going to sell on the street.
Before her arrest Monday, an agent with the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration said Destiny Wick had sent money to another individual — Neiko Rosas — with the intent of purchasing “multiple hundred fentanyl pills.”
The DEA’s website titled “Counterfeit Pills” shows that most “counterfeit pills sold to look like oxycodone or alprazolam — Xanax — are actually laced with fentanyl or methamphetamine.”
The website says: “Counterfeit pills may contain lethal amounts of fentanyl or methamphetamine and are extremely dangerous because they often appear identical to legitimate prescription pills, and the user is likely unaware of how lethal they can be.”
In his report on Wick’s arrest, DEA Special Agent Pat Bone said that on Feb. 23 investigators arrested Rosas, who was in possession of 2,000 fentanyl pills as well as small amounts of methamphetamine and crack cocaine.
DEA agents had surveilled Rosas in Tucson, according to the report, and when they arrested him and searched his cell phone they found that Wick had sent him money to purchase “multiple hundred fentanyl pills.”
On May 15, the day Wick was arrested, DEA agents, accompanied by Sierra Vista and Bisbee police and the Cochise County Sheriff’s Office, served a search warrant on Wick’s house in Sierra Vista just after 7 a.m.
Wick was not home when it was searched, the report shows. Investigators found several pieces of foil in her bedroom and drug paraphernalia, the DEA report shows.
At about 2 p.m. that same day, agents stationed outside Wick’s residence encountered a relative arriving at the property, the report shows. The family member allowed investigators to follow her to another house in Sierra Vista where Wick was staying, the report says.
Investigators saw burned pieces of tin foil, several baggies and an Apache 3800 Rugged Mobility case inside a bedroom, the report says. The case is used to protect cameras, microphones, handguns and other equipment.
Wick was arrested and taken to the DEA’s Sierra Vista Office. She declined comment and asked for an attorney, the report shows.
Later that day, investigators obtained a second search warrant, this time for the Apache Rugged Mobility case. Once opened, “investigators discovered multiple thousand suspected counterfeit alprazolam pills,” the report shows.
“Based on training and experience, I know this to be considered a ‘for sale’ amount,” Bone wrote in his report.
In an indictment obtained last week, Wick is charged with conspiracy to commit sale or transportation of narcotic drugs, possession of dangerous drugs for sale and possession of drug paraphernalia.
She was in custody at the Cochise County Jail on $75,000 bond.
Wick is the niece of Francis Wick, CEO of Wick Communications, Herald/Review Media’s owner.
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