MS Coast residents & Louisiana man arrested after tip about drug trafficking at Motel 6
A federal investigation has led to the arrests of four Bay St. Louis residents and a Louisiana man accused of trafficking counterfeit pills laced with fentanyl.
Christopher Antonio Fricke, Kolby Zu Simms, Emma Kate Stoute and Dakari Lamont Sykes, all of Bay St. Louis, and Santana Philipe Elzy, of Covington, Louisiana, are identified as the suspects.
Federal agents with the Drug Enforcement Administration and local authorities initially arrested the suspects on a federal criminal complaint accusing them of distributing drugs.
A federal grand jury has since indicted all five on charges of conspiracy to distribute a controlled substance and possession with intent to distribute a controlled substance.
Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid that is 80 to 100 times stronger than morphine. According to the Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics, as little as 2 milligrams of fentanyl is a lethal dose to one person. Two milligrams is about the same amount of powder in a packet of sweetener.
The investigation began after the Hancock County Sheriff’s Department received a written tip about possible drug trafficking in two rooms at the Motel 6 on Highway 90 in Bay St. Louis.
After conducting surveillance and identifying the alleged drug suspects at the Coast motel, the records say agents later stopped the four Bay St. Louis residents in a Toyota Camry and found over 1,000 of the fetanyl-laced pills.
Fricke, the records say, had about 1,000 pills stuffed in a baggie in the waistband of his pants. Authorities did a body scan of Stoute and found 50 pills hidden in a plastic bag stuffed inside her body cavity.
During subsequent interviews, authorities determined that the Bay St. Louis residents drove to a Walmart store in Louisiana to buy the drugs from their dealer, believed to be Elzy.
The four Bay St. Louis residents allegedly sold the drugs in Mississippi.
Fricke later told authorities he had traveled back and forth to Louisiana to buy the pills since June. Authorities estimate that Fricke had bought 2,500 pills since June.
Stoute told authorities she bought the pills for herself. Dykes told authorities he and his girlfriend, identified in the records as Stoute, had driven Fricke to Louisiana multiple times to buy the pills..
This story was originally published October 2, 2023 at 12:45 PM.
