Detectives Receive National Commendation

On Friday July 19th, 2019, two members of the Sauk County Sheriff’s Office, Detective Sergeant Eric Miller & Detective Scott Steinhorst, were honored along with other team members, Investigator Rick Severson, Iowa Co., USPIS Ross Hinckley, Investigator Jay Fitzgerald, Grant Co., S/A Scott Leck, WDOJ and Laura Przybylinski, US Attorney's Office, Western District of Wisconsin, in Washington D. C. by receiving a commendation by the Office of National Drug Control Policy and the United States Interdiction Coordinator, for their work as part of a multi-jurisdictional team lead by the U. S. Postal Inspection Service, to help fight the nation’s current drug problem. The investigation, details listed below, involved a former Spring Green / Dodgeville resident who was selling a Fentanyl analogue nationwide. This award was presented by Thomas W. Padden, the United States Interdiction Coordinator and Director James W. Carroll Jr., the Director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy and the currently appointed U.S. Drug Czar.

2018 USIC Award

Investigative & Prosecution

Wisconsin Fentanyl Nasal Spray, Dark Web Vendor U41A

The U.S. Postal Inspection Service, Drug Enforcement Administration, Wisconsin Department of Justice Division of Criminal Investigation, Richland-Iowa-Grant Drug Task Force, Sauk County Drug Task Force, Boscobel Police Department, Charlotte County (Florida) Sheriff’s Office and Western District of Wisconsin US Attorney’s Office closely cooperated to conduct a successful and complex investigation involving a fentanyl analogue. This multi-agency case began with the U. S. Postal Inspection Service’s investigation of the opioid overdose death of a Florida man. The lethal dose of a fentanyl analogue was mailed to the man in a package containing a bottle of nasal spray that was falsely labeled as a “decongestant.” Testing revealed that the bottle actually contained a fentanyl analogue. The comprehensive, multi-agency investigation discovered that the package was mailed from Madison, WI. Postal Inspectors found several additional packages associated to the Florida mailing, and learned from a source the fentanyl spray had been ordered from the dark web. The investigation culminated in the arrest, conviction and sentencing of a drug trafficker who was distributing the fentanyl analogue to multiple locations throughout the United States. During a search of the trafficker’s residence, multiple spray bottles and labels similar to the product found in Florida were seized. A majority of the evidence, to include fentanyl analogues, was located in an attic room adjacent to the bedroom of the trafficker’s child.