United States Drug Enforcement Administration

Pensacola, Fla. – Douglas Lewis, Jr., 49; Kenneth Savage, 47; and Emmit Crum, 48; of Pensacola, have been arrested on federal charges related to a multi-year conspiracy to distribute fentanyl, using telephone facilities to carry out the drug conspiracy, and maintaining a drug premises. John P. Heekin, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Florida, announced the charges.

The three defendants were arrested during an operational takedown involving the search and seizure of evidence from multiple Escambia County residences. Also arrested on federal drug charges were Tiffany Oppelt, 36, and Britny Davis, 36, of Pensacola. As revealed in court during a preliminary hearing, law enforcement seized close to two pounds of fentanyl, multiple firearms and vehicles, and over $100,000 in United States currency during the course of the search warrant executions. The criminal conduct involved significant amounts of fentanyl being distributed throughout Escambia County over more than a year. 

The three men appeared this week before United States Magistrate Judge Zachary C. Bolitho at the United States Courthouse in Pensacola, Florida, for their detention hearings. They were ordered to be held in the custody of the United States Marshals Service pending further judicial proceedings.            

This case is being investigated by the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office, Santa Rosa County Sheriff’s Office, Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office, Walton County Sheriff’s Office, the Pensacola Police Department, Florida Highway Patrol, Florida Department of Law Enforcement, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the U.S. Marshals Service, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney David L. Goldberg.

A federal criminal complaint is merely an allegation that a defendant has committed a violation of federal criminal law and is not evidence of guilt. All defendants are presumed innocent and entitled to a fair trial, during which it will be the government’s burden to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt at trial.

This case is part of Operation Take Back America, a nationwide initiative that marshals the full resources of the Department of Justice to repel the invasion of illegal immigration, achieve the total elimination of cartels and transnational criminal organizations (TCOs), and protect our communities from the perpetrators of violent crime.