SPOKANE, Wash. – A Spokane resident has been sentenced to twenty years in prison and five years of court supervision for his role in a commercial pill operation in Hillyard that had supplies to make over two million fentanyl pills containing a lethal dose.
The Eastern District of Washington United States Attorney announced the sentencing of 44-year-old Timothy Gary Maddox in a press release today that described his involvement in the operation.
Maddox ran the operation with co-defendant Nicholas Adams, whose house hosted the pill press machine and the supplies.
They had bought a commercial pill press from China and mixed powder fentanyl and cutting agents to make their own fentanyl pills for bulk distribution to the community.
The machine and supplies were seized in November 2023 after the Department of Ecology helped execute a warrant at Adam’s house.
According to the Drug Enforcement Administration, the amount of fentanyl powder that Maddox and Adams had on hand was enough to “kill the entire population of Spokane County almost four times over.”
In addition to the fentanyl, Maddox and Adams had a large amount of methamphetamine, heroin, cocaine, MDMA and marijuana. They both had multiple loaded firearms including handguns, modified shotguns and AK-type rifles.
Maddox also had a loaded firearm with a round chambered that had a “Glock Switch,” as well as a loaded large drum magazine and three sets of body armor.
Maddox had previously been charged with many criminal convictions over the last 30 years, including residential burglary, vehicle theft, domestic violence, negligent driving, protection order violations, assault and drug trafficking.
He also had a previous federal conviction for drug trafficking in 2015. In that case, he told arresting officers that he had been dealing drugs “for years” in the Spokane area and that he was one of the area’s largest drug dealers.
“The volume of fentanyl that this investigation took of the street is truly staggering. I cannot overstate the impact our team made here, by identifying a repeat criminal who was manufacturing vast quantities of this deadly drug while heavily armed. Removing him for decades will protect this community in ways seen and unseen. We want the public to know that these threats exist and that our team is working tirelessly to combat them wherever and whenever they appear,” said U.S. Attorney Serano.
“Mr. Maddox is a career criminal who endangered the safety and health of our community with a truly lethal mix of homemade counterfeit fentanyl pills and automatic weapons,” said David F. Reames, Special Agent in Charge of the DEA Seattle Field Division. “Mr. Maddox made fentanyl even more dangerous by recklessly mixing substances at home, where he could include anything he chose into his deadly concoctions. Mr. Maddox spent years peddling misery and death for his own enrichment and I am proud that DEA and our partners could put an end to his trafficking with this sentence.”
“HSI Seattle answered the President’s call to confront our nation’s fentanyl crisis head-on by bringing justice in one of Eastern Washington’s largest pill manufacturing cases,” said HSI Seattle Acting Special Agent in Charge Colin Jackson. “With this sentencing, Maddox is held accountable for endangering a residential neighborhood by operating a makeshift narcotics lab that housed enough fentanyl to produce over two million lethal pills. Clearly, Maddox had no regard for public safety and was only out to make a profit. This case underscores HSI’s unwavering dedication to safeguard our communities and protect the well-being of the American people.”
“I am confident that the removal of this significant and lethal amount of fentanyl, other dangerous drugs, and cache of weapons, combined with the equipment used to produce and distribute these deadly pills rapidly, saved lives,” stated Spokane County Sheriff John Nowels. “This is a direct result of the strong partnership between our local law enforcement agencies and our federal colleagues. Together, we share the goal of eliminating this destructive poison from our community and ensuring that those who pedal it are held accountable.”
Adams is still pending trial. His trial is set for December 2025.
