Date: March 19, 2025
Contact: newsroom@ci.irs.gov
Raleigh, NC — A Raleigh man was sentenced today to 16 years in prison for trafficking fentanyl pills. On Nov. 12, 2024, Donnavin Mustafia Byrdsong pled guilty to Conspiracy to Distribute and Possess with the Intent to Distribute 400 grams or more of fentanyl.
According to court documents and other information presented in court, Byrdsong was part of a group that was trafficking fentanyl pills into the Raleigh, North Carolina area for distribution. Law enforcement determined that Byrdsong and other members of the drug trafficking organization would fly to California to purchase fentanyl pills and would ship the pills back to North Carolina. On Jan. 16, 2024, Byrdsong mailed two packages from California to an address in Raleigh. Law enforcement ultimately seized the packages and discovered a total of 40,000 fentanyl pills, concealed in Lego boxes. During a search of Byrdsong’s residence, law enforcement found numerous additional Lego boxes. The investigation confirmed that Byrdsong had previously mailed similar packages from California to Raleigh.
This investigation was an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF) investigation. OCDETF identifies, disrupts, and dismantles the highest-level drug traffickers, money launderers, gangs, and transnational criminal organizations that threaten the United States by using a prosecutor-led, intelligence-driven, multiagency approach that leverages the strengths of federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies against criminal networks.
Daniel P. Bubar, Acting U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of North Carolina made the announcement after sentencing by U.S. District Judge James C. Dever III. The Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI), the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, the Raleigh Police Department, and the United States Postal Inspection Service investigated the case and Assistant U.S. Attorney Casey L. Peaden prosecuted the case.
IRS-CI is the criminal investigative arm of the IRS, responsible for conducting financial crime investigations, including tax fraud, narcotics trafficking, money-laundering, public corruption, healthcare fraud, identity theft and more. IRS-CI special agents are the only federal law enforcement agents with investigative jurisdiction over violations of the Internal Revenue Code, obtaining a 90% federal conviction rate. The agency has 20 field offices located across the U.S. and 14 attaché posts abroad.