Police: Evansville man sold fentanyl to controlled informant during task force investigation

Houston Harwood, Evansville Courier & Press
·3 min read

EVANSVILLE — A joint city and county police task force allegedly utilized a confidential informant to repeatedly purchase fentanyl from an Evansville man who could now face a years-long prison sentence if convicted.

Vanderburgh County jail booking records identified the man as 35-year-old Drew Mikail Smith. Evansville police arrested Smith on Wednesday after he and his romantic partner were pulled over near the Oak Grove Road-Centerpointe Drive intersection, one of Smith's two arrest affidavits states.

Inside Smith’s vehicle, detectives allegedly located more than 120 tenth-of-a-gram doses of fentanyl, along with methamphetamine, prescription narcotics, a digital scale and drug paraphernalia.

According to court records, detectives believe there is probable cause to charge Smith with ten felony counts:

  • Dealing in fentanyl over a less-than-90-day period, a Level 2 felony

  • Six counts of dealing in a narcotic drug with a prior conviction, a Level 3 felony

  • Dealing in fentanyl, more than 10 grams, a Level 2 felony

  • Possession of methamphetamine, a Level 5 felony

A woman the police identified as Smith's girlfriend, 33-year-old Leah Nicole Viars, was arrested following the traffic stop on charges of possession of a controlled substance and possession of drug paraphernalia.

Court records show Viars posted a $130 cash bond on Thursday.

A judge was scheduled to review the preliminary evidence against Smith on Thursday afternoon.

He is currently being held at the Vanderburgh County jail without bond on a 72-hour hold, court records state.

By the time the Evansville-Vanderburgh County Drug Task Force officers conducted the traffic stop that led to Smith's arrest, detectives claimed they already had probable cause to arrest him based on the findings of a weeks-long investigation.

Beginning in late January, the task force employed a “credible and reliable confidential informant” to purchase fentanyl from Smith on at least seven occasions, Detective Chris Seibert, of the Evansville Police Department, wrote in a sworn affidavit filed in Vanderburgh County Circuit Court.

“The amount of fentanyl purchased from Drew Smith (was) about 143 doses of fentanyl,” the affidavit states. Seibert based that finding on the assumption that most users would treat about one-tenth of one gram of fentanyl as a “dose.”

The “C.I.” utilized marked currency to make the purchases, according to Seibert. The controlled buys reportedly occurred on or about Feb. 4, Feb. 9, Feb. 13, Feb. 18 and Feb. 29.

In addition to the fentanyl the task force allegedly collected during those controlled buys, Smith is alleged to have had 12.3 grams of the highly potent opioid in his possession when he was arrested Wednesday morning.

According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, fentanyl is about 50 times more potent than heroin and about 100 times stronger than morphine. The Courier & Press reported earlier this year that Vanderburgh County Coroner’s Office data shows the drug is responsible for the vast majority of fatal overdoses in Evansville.

The number of fatal overdoses recorded in Vanderburgh County in 2023 declined by more than 27% compared to the prior year, a promising trend that Coroner Steve Lockyear attributed in part to the rapid proliferation of the opioid-reversal drug Narcan.

Indiana sentencing guidelines state that if convicted, Smith could serve between 10 and 30 years in a state prison. As of Thursday afternoon, Smith had not yet been afforded the chance to enter a plea, and the charges levied against him were preliminary.

This article originally appeared on Evansville Courier & Press: Evansville man arrested after allegedly selling fentanyl to informant