Drug trafficker knew customers were overdosing, kept selling fentanyl

BREVARD, N.C. (FOX Carolina) - A 26-year-old western North Carolina woman was sentenced to federal prison for selling fentanyl that led to a deadly overdose.

Victoria Irby was arrested in 2020, nearly a year after police started investigating her for trafficking various narcotics including pure or uncut fentanyl.

Investigators said Irby had to revive multiple customers that overdosed on the fentanyl she was distributing. On May 23, 2019, she sold fentanyl to Dakota Fincham, a 27-year-old Wellford man who subsequently died from an overdose.

Irby was initially charged with second-degree murder, but she pleaded guilty to possession with intent to distribute heroin, marijuana, fentanyl, methamphetamine, and buprenorphine; and distribution of heroin, marijuana, fentanyl, meth, and buprenorphine.

As part of her plea deal, Irby admitted to knowingly and intentionally distributing fentanyl to Fincham, and that the drugs she supplied caused his death.

The judge said he found it “particularly troubling” that she continued to sell fentanyl after Fincham’s death.

She was sentenced 15 years in prison.