Spokane, WASH. — Nicholas Adams, 37, was sentenced to 20 years in prison followed by 10 years of court supervision for his role in running a commercial pill press operation out of his home in the Hillyard neighborhood.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Washington announced the sentencing Friday morning.
According to court documents and information discussed during the sentencing hearing, Adams and his co-defendant Timothy Maddox obtained a commercial pill press via the mail from China and set up a pill press operation in the basement of Adams’ home. They mixed powder fentanyl and cutting agents to make their own fentanyl pills for bulk distribution into the community.
Search warrants were executed at multiple locations in November 2023, where law enforcement found a “massive amount of fentanyl powder, cutting agents, pill press parts, and multiple firearms along with an operational commercial pill press.”
Investigators say Maddox and Adams has enough product to make more than 2,000,000 fentanyl pills containing a lethal dose.
“Put another way, the amount of fentanyl powder they had on hand to make these illicit pills could kill the entire population of Spokane County almost 4 times over,” investigators said.
The U.S. Attorney’s office says in addition to their fentanyl pill production, Maddox and Adams possessed large quantities of methamphetamine, along with heroin, cocaine, MDMA, and marijuana.
“This 20-year sentence advances DEA’s unwavering commitment to a Fentanyl Free America,” said Robert A. Saccone, Special Agent in Charge, DEA Seattle Field Division. “By possessing massive amounts of fentanyl powder and operating a commercial pill press capable of producing more than two million potentially lethal fentanyl pills, the defendant was directly placing lives in Spokane County at risk.”
The full press release can be viewed here.
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