Court proceedings are on hold in Lyon County’s first significant fentanyl distribution case.
That’s because the defendant, 33-year-old Terry Don Cummings, failed to appear for his preliminary hearing Monday in Lyon County District Court. A bench warrant has now been issued for his arrest. The prelim has not been rescheduled at this time.
Cummings is a black male, 5-foot-6 and 170 pounds. He faces one state count of distributing at least 100 units of fentanyl after his arrest in early January by the Kansas Highway Patrol. Troopers say they conducted a traffic stop on the Kansas Turnpike and found 200 counterfeit oxycontin pills as part of a probable cause search.
The DEA says counterfeit pills are now commonplace, and it issued a public safety alert last September to warn about fentanyl and its dangers. Put one way, two milligrams of fentanyl can be lethal. Put another way, amounts that can fit on a pencil tip are enough to kill people.
Earlier this year, Emporia Police announced a handful of fentanyl-connected overdoses since February 2021 and it recently gave officers special training on the use of Narcan to stop overdoses if possible. Back in April, the Drug Enforcement Agency announced its Northeast Kansas One Pill Can Kill initiative involving partners like Emporia Police and the Lyon, Coffey and Osage county sheriff’s offices to stop counterfeit pills laced with fentanyl.
If you have information on Cummings’ whereabouts, call Emporia Police at 620-343-4200 or the Lyon County Sheriff’s Office at 620-341-3205.
