Spokane Fentanyl Pill Maker Gets 20 Years in Prison

A Spokane man will spend 20 years in prison for his role in operating a drug pill ring in the region.

  The man was using a pill press machine to make Fentanyl and other pills

The US District Court for Eastern WA announced 44-year-old  Timothy Gary Maddox was arrested for operating what's called a pill press machine, and was using it to press, or manufacture, Fentanyl pills for distribution in the area.

Officials said he was running the operation from his Hillyard area home. Hillyard is a bit of a rough area in east central Spokane.

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Maddox came to the attention of investigators tips and leads led to search warrants and raids at his property in November of 2023, resulting in his arrest.  He and co-defendant Ncholas Adams (whose home was the primary location) had a lot of drugs, according to the DEA and US Attorney:

, "the amount of fentanyl powder Maddox and Adams had on hand to produce pills was easily enough to make over 2,000,000 fentanyl pills containing a lethal dose. Put another way, the amount of fentanyl powder they had on hand to make these illicit pills could kill the entire population of Spokane County almost four times over."

Maddox had obtained a pill press machine from China to utilize in the operation. Pill presses allow a variety of powders and substances to be compressed into pills. They also had extensive amounts of other drugs and illegal firearms.

Maddox will also get 5 years of supervised probation.