20-year-old pleads guilty after arrest involving 1,000 fentanyl-laced pills, Coast motel
A 20-year-old from Bay St. Louis pleaded guilty in federal court for his role in trafficking fentanyl-laced pills from Louisiana to Mississippi, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Mississippi announced Thursday.
Kolby Zu Sims pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Gulfport to one count of interstate travel in aid of an unlawful activity. He faces a maximum of four years in prison, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said in a news release.
Authorities arrested Sims after the Hancock County Sheriff’s Office and federal agents with the Drug Enforcement Administration responded to a written tip of possible drug trafficking at the Motel 6 in Bay St. Louis, the Sun Herald previously reported.
Agents arrested three other Bay St. Louis residents and one Louisiana man in that case. Christopher Antonio Fricke, Emma Kate Stoute and Dakari Lamont Sykes, all of Bay St. Louis, and Santana Philipe Elzy, of Covington, Louisiana, were also arrested, records show.
Fricke and Stoute pleaded guilty in the case in November, court records show. Elzy pleaded guilty on Monday. The case against Sykes is pending but in January court records show he entered a notice of intent to change his plea to guilty.
The arrests came after federal agents surveilled the Motel 6 on U.S. 90, the news release said. Agents saw a red Toyota Camry arrive and pick up two people suspected of selling drugs, according to the release.
Agents followed the car into Louisiana, where they saw the occupants participate in a drug transaction, the release said. Records show that in later interviews, agents found the four Bay St. Louis suspects drove to a Louisiana Walmart store to buy drugs from Elzy, who authorities believed was their dealer.
Agents followed the car back to Mississippi and conducted a traffic stop to make the arrests.
Authorities said Sims was inside the Camry and had contributed money to buy around 1,000 fentanyl-laced pills in Louisiana.
Fentanyl is 100 times stronger than morphine and 50 times stronger than heroin, according to the DEA. Two milligrams — an amount smaller than a penny — can be lethal.
Fricke had 1,000 fentanyl-laced pills stuffed into a baggie in his pant waistband, records show. A body scan of Stoute found 50 pills in a plastic bag hidden inside her body cavity.
A federal grand jury had indicted all five suspects by October on charges of conspiracy to distribute a controlled substance and possession with intent to distribute a controlled substance.
Sims will be sentenced March 21.
