Lexington man sentenced on fentanyl charge

Federal prosecutors say a Lexington County man will spend 10 years in prison after being convicted of trying to ship fentanyl pills and powder out of state.

Gregory Hill, 41, of Lexington, was sentenced on charges of distribution of fentanyl and cocaine, U.S. Attorney Bryan P. Stirling announced in a news release Thursday, Oct. 1.

Drug Enforcement Administration and Lexington County Sheriff’s Department investigators surveilled Hill leaving his Lexington home and traveling to a nearby business to ship two packages on Oct. 4, 2024.

Officers went to the business and located the packages, which were being sent out of state. Hill’s known aliases were listed as the sender. Law enforcement officers flagged the packages as suspicious. A K-9 sniffed the packages and alerted to the presence of drugs.

Authorities then obtained a warrant to search the packages. They found 984 grams of fentanyl powder in one package and 1,019 fentanyl pills in the other, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of South Carolina.

Three days later, on Oct. 7, 2024, authorities executed a search warrant at Hill’s home and found 1,438 fentanyl pills, more than $29,000 in cash and packaging material, prosecutors said. Law enforcement officers also searched Hill’s storage unit, where they found a drug ledger.

Further investigation revealed that Hill was responsible for trafficking 14 kilograms of cocaine, 984 grams of fentanyl powder and 32,458 fentanyl pills to various drug traffickers.

U.S. District Judge Sherri A. Lydon sentenced Hill to 120 months’ imprisonment, to be followed by a five-year term of court-ordered supervision.  There is no parole in the federal system.

This prosecution is part of the Homeland Security Task Force initiative established by Executive Order 14159, Protecting the American People Against Invasion. The HSTF is a whole-of-government partnership dedicated to eliminating criminal cartels, foreign gangs, transnational criminal organizations and human smuggling and trafficking rings operating in the United States and abroad.

This case was investigated by the Drug Enforcement Administration, the FBI Columbia Field Office, the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division and the Lexington County Sheriff’s Department. Assistant U.S. Attorney Lamar J. Fyall prosecuted the case.