Chester County man pleads guilty to deadly fentanyl pill scheme

PHILADELPHIA — A Chester County man who authorities said was trafficking in a chemically altered form of deadly fentanyl, disguising it as prescription Oxycodone, now faces a federal prison sentence for the crimes he committed.

Ryan Menkins, 37, of Malvern, pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge H. Slomsky for his role in distributing more than 900 pills containing a dangerous fentanyl analogue, a Schedule I controlled substance, according to a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Philadelphia.

In August 2019, Menkins and his co-defendant Kevin Swing were charged by a superseding indictment with conspiracy to distribute and distributing a substance containing a fentanyl analogue for their scheme involving the drug. West Whiteland police made the initial arrest.

In May 2018, Swing used an intermediary to sell more than 900 pills containing the narcotic cyclopropyl fentanyl, a fentanyl equivalent, to Menkins for $5,600. Each pill was imprinted with “ETH 446,” which is typically found on Oxycodone Hydrochloride 30 mg pills.

In other words, the fentanyl pills were intentionally mislabeled as legitimate, prescription oxycodone pills. In January 2020, defendant Swing pleaded guilty to the charges and was sentenced to 6 1/2 years in prison in September of that year.

“Prescription medication like oxycodone is already vulnerable to misuse and abuse, but when a substance as dangerous as fentanyl is made to appear to be prescription medication, it can have catastrophic consequences,” said U.S. Attorney Jacqueline C. Romero. “Fentanyl is killing Americans every day, and Menkins significantly contributed to this epidemic in the eastern district of Pennsylvania.”

“Ryan Menkins pushed pills that looked like regular prescription oxycodone, which in reality contained a drug related to fentanyl,” said Jacqueline Maguire, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Philadelphia Division.

“Each sale was a potentially deadly transaction for customers — or anyone else who stumbled upon these deceptive drugs. The FBI and our law enforcement partners will continue to battle the dealers and traffickers endangering our communities in the name of making money off of the opioid epidemic.”

The case was investigated by the FBI and the West Whiteland Police Department and is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew T. Newcomer.