Former Wilkes-Barre Woman Sentenced For Trafficking Fentanyl Pills
Sunday, February 23, 2025, 6:45 A.M. ET. 2 Minute Read, By Art Fletcher: Englebrook Independent News,
SCRANTON, PA.- On Friday, February 21, 2025, Tyla Griffin, 36, of Phoenix, Arizona, appeared in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania and was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Robert D. Mariani to 92 months in federal prison, to be followed by five years of supervised release for her role in an interstate drug trafficking conspiracy.
According to Acting U.S. Attorney John C. Gurganus and charging documents filed with the District Court, around January 2020, Griffin relocated from Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, to Phoenix, Arizona. After getting settled into her new residence, Griffin and her co-conspirator, Davon Beckford, cultivated a relationship with an Arizona source of a supply of counterfeit oxycodone pills, “fentanyl pills.”
Griffin Conspired With Other To Sell Pills In Pennsylvania
Griffin then conspired with Beckford and others to sell the fentanyl pills to drug dealers, formally known to them throughout Luzerne County, Pennsylvania. During the conspiracy, Griffin distributed hundreds of thousands of fentanyl pills through the U.S. Postal Service to drug associates in Pennsylvania from Arizona.
Griffin was initially indicted by a Federal Grand Jury for the Middle District of Pennsylvania on February 15, 2022. She appeared in federal court in Scranton, Pennsylvania, on February 28, 2023, and pleaded guilty to Conspiracy to Distribute Controlled Substances. Beckford was sentenced by Judge Mariani on January 24, 2025, to 240 months in federal prison for his guilty plea to the Distribution of Fentanyl Resulting in Death.
Acting U.S. Attorney Gurganus commended the investigative work of the Wilkes-Barre Police Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, which led to the successful prosecutions and federal prison sentences for Griffin and Beckford.
