Leader of fentanyl trafficking ring that flew 300K pills to Wichita is sentenced
An Arizona man has been sentenced to more than 22 years in prison for his role in a drug trafficking ring that brought “large amounts” of illicit fentanyl into Kansas, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Kansas announced Wednesday.
Prosecutors say 35-year-old Rafael Turner was the ringleader of a fentanyl operation that involved at least 45 other people across the U.S., including some in Wichita. He conspired with the group until March 2023 to obtain and distribute the deadly opioid and engaged in a number of conversations and actions to meet that goal, knowing at all times that the fentanyl was illegal, prosecutors say.
He “voluntarily and knowingly” committed the crimes for the “shared mutual benefit” of everyone involved, according to his plea agreement.
Among Turner’s accomplices were two Wichita men — 33-year-old Clifton Ray Weatherspoon and 27-year-old Antonio Dawayne Knight — who flew to Phoenix in February 2023 and bought 300,000 fentanyl pills that they then packed into two suitcases and brought back to Wichita. Prosecutors say the men checked the luggage under their names at the airport before getting on the plane.
But they didn’t make it far after their arrival.
Law enforcement seized one of the suitcases before it reached baggage claim and got the other when they arrested Weatherspoon and Knight. Each hid approximately 150,000 fentanyl pills stuffed into more than a dozen bags.
Weatherspoon and Knight were each convicted of one count of possession of fentanyl with intent to distribute. Weatherspoon received a 25-year federal prison sentence, a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office says.
Knight got half that time, 12 1/2 years.
Turner, who used to live in Wichita, pleaded guilty in March to one count of conspiracy to distribute a controlled substance. He was sentenced on Dec. 4 to 272 months in federal prison, court records show.
“Over the past few years, the federal government has partnered with state and local governments as well as community groups to curtail the fentanyl crisis. The prosecution of this large drug conspiracy was part of that work,” U.S. Attorney Ryan A. Kriegshauser said in the news release.
