MIAMI COUNTY — Two Miami Valley residents have been arrested and charged in connection with an international drug conspiracy.
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The FBI, a witness, and law enforcement sources all confirmed to News Center 7 that a raid happened two weeks ago, on Aug. 22, in an apartment complex in one of the pockets of Huber Heights that sits in Miami County.
As reported on News Center at 5:00, Eric Payne and his girlfriend, Auriyon Rayford, were both arrested during that raid in connection with an international drug case involving fentanyl.
One of the couple’s neighbors told News Center 7 about being awoken by the raid last month. He said the police sirens woke him up, and that’s when he saw a “blacked out van” with six or seven people in full military gear and “FBI” on their backs jump out.
“Seeing the FBI, I had poked my head out and they were all very nice, but very curt about — ‘Just go back inside, everything’s fine,’” Corey Peterson recalled.
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The FBI’s director said on Wednesday that agents seized more than 300 pounds of fentanyl in the investigation.
“That’s enough lethal doses for 70 million Americans,” Kash Patel, FBI director, said.
The FBI told News Center 7’s John Bedell the apartment in Huber Heights was a distribution hub for fentanyl laced with even more potent synthetic opioids. The couple, along with one other U.S. citizen, got the drugs from China.
Elena Iatarola, Special Agent in Charge for the FBI Cincinnati, confirmed a drug trafficking network led drugs from the couple’s apartment into communities in the Miami Valley and other parts of Ohio.
Four Chinese companies and 22 Chinese nationals were also charged in the case.
Federal prosecutors said the defendants overseas collected money from the sales from the defendants in the United States.
The defendants in the case are also facing money laundering charges.
Bedell asked federal prosecutors if they’ll be able to get any of the Chinese nationals to the United States to face charges.
“China has a policy against extraditing their own nationals,” Dominick S. Gerace II, U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio, said. “However, we will be taking the steps that we need to take to put red notices in on these individuals. So in the event that they travel outside of China and are picked up by any country where we can extradite from, we’ll be ready to do that.”
The FBI also said one of the Chinese companies in the case is being sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury Department.
News Center 7 was in a federal courtroom on Wednesday afternoon, where Payne and Rayford pleaded not guilty to the charges they face. There, we learned that Payne is in jail before trial, but Rayford is not.
Both of their defense lawyers told News Center 7, “no comment” after the hearing.
Bedell also asked federal prosecutors and investigators why the Dayton area continues to be such a hot spot for illegal drug activity like this, despite not being the biggest metro area in the state.
“My view would be, you know, you have I-70 coming into Dayton, you have I-75 coming into Dayton,” Gerace said. “I think this is the confluence of the highways there.”
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