Two Florida Men Sentenced to 20 and 15 Years for Fentanyl and Methamphetamine Trafficking

FORT MYERS, Florida — Clarence Black Jr., 50, of Tampa, received a 20-year-and-six-month federal prison sentence and Jarrek Fabrion Myrick, 40, of Fort Myers, received a 15-year-and-six-month sentence for their roles in a drug trafficking conspiracy involving methamphetamine and fentanyl, the Justice Department announced Tuesday.

Black and Myrick each pleaded guilty to drug trafficking conspiracy and possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine and fentanyl. Black's sentence accounts for committing the new offenses while on federal supervised release from a prior conviction. The pair arranged shipments of the drugs from California to Florida for distribution in the Fort Myers area.

The sentences impose immediate incarceration with no release date before 2041 for Black and 2036 for Myrick, assuming maximum good-time credit. Both men must serve their full terms in federal Bureau of Prisons custody before any supervised release that follows.

The convictions trigger mandatory federal penalties that remove the defendants from street-level distribution networks for more than a decade and a half. The case forms part of ongoing Department of Justice efforts to disrupt domestic fentanyl and methamphetamine supply chains that feed overdose deaths in Florida communities.

Sentencing occurred in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida.

This sentencing concludes a prosecution that began with federal charges detailing cross-country transport of kilogram quantities of methamphetamine mixed with fentanyl. The Justice Department has pursued similar California-to-Florida trafficking rings in multiple districts as synthetic opioid deaths remain elevated nationwide.