Crime

Bay St. Louis man had 312 fake Oxycodone pills laced with fentanyl. He’s going to prison.

Joseph Henry III
Joseph Henry III

A Hancock County man is headed to prison for five years after admitting he had enough fentanyl at his home to kill the entire population of Waveland and Bay St. Louis, records show.

In addition, Joseph Murphy Henry III, 45, had over a pound of marijuana, 848 doses of the club drug Ecstasy — also known as MDMA — and 312 counterfeit oxycodone pills that tested positive for fentanyl.

According to authorities, tests showed that counterfeit pills the Bay St. Louis man possessed contained 41.77 grams of of fentanyl, or enough of the drug to result in the deaths of 20,000 people.

Hancock County sheriff’s deputies arrested Henry on Dec. 5, 2021, after going to his home after spotting two digital scales in plain view and smelling marijuana. A search led to the discovery of the drugs.

In addition to prison, Judge Sul Ozerden fined Henry $5,000 and ordered him to pay a $100 special assessment fee. Henry will also spend five years under post-release supervision..

The Drug Enforcement Administration headed up the investigation.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Erica Rose prosecuted the case.

Margaret Baker
Sun Herald
Margaret is an investigative reporter whose search for truth exposed corrupt sheriffs, a police chief and various jailers and led to the first prosecution of a federal hate crime for the murder of a transgendered person. She worked on the Sun Herald’s Pulitzer Prize-winning Hurricane Katrina team. When she pursues a big story, she is relentless.
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