North Dakota man sentenced to 12 years in federal prison for drug conspiracy resulting in teen’s death

FARGO, N.D. — An eastern North Dakota man was sentenced Tuesday to 12 years in federal prison for his role in a conspiracy to distribute fentanyl, a controlled substance that resulted in the death of a teenager.

This sentence resulted from an investigation titled Operation Denial by the following agencies:  U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), U.S. Postal Inspection Service (USPIS), the Grand Forks (North Dakota) Narcotics Task Force, Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), Portland (Oregon) Police Department, Portland High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area’s (HIDTA ) Interdiction Task Force, Oregon State Police, and the Grand Forks Police Department.

Joshua Tyler Fulp, 20, of Grand Forks was sentenced to serve 12 years in prison for conspiracy to distribute controlled substances resulting in serious bodily injury and death. He was also sentenced to 36 months supervised release after he completes his prison term; and he was ordered to pay $17,264 restitution jointly with other co-defendants, as well as pay a $100 special assessment to the Crime Victims Fund.

Beginning in January 2014, Fulp and a co-defendant began receiving shipments of fentanyl from Oregon. Operation Denial, which alleged that the drugs and substances were obtained from Canada and China, started in North Dakota on Jan. 3, 2015, with the overdose death of 18-year-old Bailey Henke of Grand Forks.

Fentanyl s a potent, synthetic opioid, commonly used by physicians for a variety of pain management uses. Fentanyl is about 80 to 100 times more potent than morphine, and roughly 40 to 50 times more potent than pharmaceutical grade (100% pure) heroin.

On Jan. 25, co-defendants David Todd Noye Jr., 19, and Kain Daniel Schwandt, 20, both of Grand Forks, were also sentenced in this conspiracy to 39 months and 42 months, respectively.