Buncombe deputies seize record fentanyl haul, arrest six in drug probe

Six arrests, three search warrants and 6.22 pounds of fentanyl put Buncombe County on notice: deputies said the haul was the largest fentanyl seizure in the sheriff’s office’s history and large enough to represent an extraordinary overdose threat if it had reached local streets.

Investigators executed the warrants April 16 at residences in Buncombe County, including homes in Candler and Asheville, after a years-long probe aimed at dismantling what the sheriff’s office described as a large-scale drug trafficking organization. Along with the fentanyl, deputies seized 2.03 pounds of cocaine, 125.3 grams of methamphetamine, 0.97 pounds of marijuana, 30 grams of MDMA, a handgun, more than $20,000 in cash and drug paraphernalia.

The arrests were made against Henry Moreland, Kissy Michele Mills, Sierra Astrid Blalock, Dakota Salene Gearin, Brian Moreland and Kristy Rae Wilson. Charges reported in local coverage included trafficking in fentanyl, cocaine and methamphetamine, maintaining a dwelling for controlled substances, money laundering, conspiracy counts and other drug allegations.

The operation brought together the sheriff’s office Illegal Gun Reduction and Narcotics Task Force, the Special Response Team, Animal Crimes officers, the North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the Asheville Police Department and the Drug Enforcement Administration. That level of coordination shows how Buncombe County agencies are trying to build cases that reach beyond one stop or one sale and into the broader trafficking network moving drugs through neighborhoods from Candler to Asheville.

Public health data shows why the seizure matters far beyond the jail booking sheet. County presentations have said fentanyl was involved in 33% of overdose deaths in Buncombe County in 2015 and 74% in 2021, after entering the local drug supply around 2015. Another county presentation put Buncombe’s 2022 overdose death rate at 53.6 per 100,000, above North Carolina’s 36.9 per 100,000. Local coverage citing state data said the county recorded 66 fentanyl-positive deaths in 2025, down from 82 in 2024 and 144 in 2022, but still at a level that continues to strain emergency responders, treatment providers and families.

By one local law-enforcement estimate, the fentanyl seized in this case could have translated into at least 50,000 dosage units, a reminder of how a few pounds of powder can become a lethal number of street doses. The sheriff’s office said the goal was not just to disrupt one transaction but to take apart an organization feeding the county’s overdose crisis.

The case landed in the middle of another major fentanyl enforcement action in Asheville, where police separately announced a record seizure tied to Jesse Milton Ogletree Jr. on Gashes Creek Road. That case involved about 33.249 pounds of narcotics, eight firearms and $13,582 in cash, including 8.03 kilograms of suspected fentanyl. Together, the two investigations suggest Buncombe County is confronting a trafficking environment that is still active, heavily armed and large enough to produce record seizures in rapid succession.