Riverhead Man Gets 25 Years in Prison for Selling Drugs That Killed 4

A convicted narcotics trafficker was sentenced to 25 years in federal prison for selling large quantities of illegal drugs that caused a spate of overdoses that claimed four lives on the North Fork in 2021.

Marquis Douglas had pleaded guilty in November before U.S. District Judge Joanna Seybert at Central Islip federal court to charges of conspiring with others to distribute and possess with the intent to distribute more than five kilograms of cocaine, more than one kilogram of heroin, more than 280 grams of crack cocaine and more than 40 grams of fentanyl.

“Douglas’s singular contribution to the opioid epidemic on Long Island is horrific as the drugs he distributed contributed to the deaths of four human beings,” said Breon Peace, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York. “It is my hope that holding the defendant accountable for the terrible consequences of his actions will bring a measure of closure to the victims’ families.”

Prosecutors said the 39-year-old man distributed a quantity of cocaine laced with a fentanyl analogue in Greenport and when those drugs were re-distributed at the street level, it ultimately led to four fatal overdoses on a single day in Greenport and Shelter Island on August 13, 2021.

He had distributed multiple kilograms of cocaine over the years, as well as kilogram level quantities of heroin and large quantities of fentanyl, according to investigators. At the time of his arrest in May of 2022, Douglas was found in possession of 105 grams of fentanyl and 135 grams of cocaine.