District Attorney Ashley Hornsby Welch said a Sylva woman pleaded guilty July 8 in Jackson County Superior Court to two counts of trafficking in illegal drugs.
Megan Tate, 27, will spend at least 140 months and as much as 186 months in the N.C. Department of Public Corrections.
Senior Resident Superior Court Judge Bradley B. Letts also ordered Tate to pay a state-mandated $100,000 total fine. She was fined $50,000 for each of two felony pleas, trafficking in opium or heroin by transportation and trafficking in opium or heroin by possession.
Tate was found with illegal drugs on Jan. 10, 2020, during a Jackson County Sheriff’s Office traffic stop. She was a passenger in a vehicle traveling on U.S. 441. The car lacked a tag light.
Deputies discovered more than 4 grams of oxycodone pills, an opium derivative; pocket scales and other drug paraphernalia, burnt aluminum foil underneath the passenger seat, and other evidence of illegal drugs. Tate had more than $10,000 in cash in her purse.
On Feb. 5, 2020, fire department personnel were called to a Sylva parking lot because two people were unconscious in a parked car.
Inside the vehicle, there was evidence of drugs and drug paraphernalia. Sylva police officers seized more than 4 grams of fentanyl, heroin and ANPP, designated a schedule II immediate precursor to fentanyl.
Assistant District Attorney Chris Matheson prosecuted the case.