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Iowa woman sentenced for selling heroin, fentanyl to convicted Hampton Roads trafficker

Posted at 12:10 PM, Nov 27, 2020
and last updated 2020-11-27 12:10:16-05

NORFOLK, Va. – An Iowa woman was sentenced to 10 years in prison for her role as the out-of-state heroin and fentanyl supplier for convicted Hampton Roads trafficker Michelle Best.

Latosha Prather, 37, sold two kilograms of heroin and fentanyl to Best in September 2017. Court documents say that Prather was operating a day care service out of her home at the time of the sale.

In January 2018, Prather traveled from her home in Iowa to Virginia Beach, where she met Best in a Wal-Mart parking lot to distribute another kilogram of heroin and fentanyl.

A Virginia SWAT team working with the DEA found nearly $42,000 in cash, 352 grams of heroin laced with fentanyl, "significant quantities" of other narcotics, a money counter and a number of firearms in Best's home while executing a search warrant.

Best was sentenced in March 2019 to 30 years in prison.

“Selling fentanyl from a daycare where young children are present is not just extremely reckless and illegal, it is dangerous,” said G. Zachary Terwilliger, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia. “This case and this sentence should be a wake-up call to anyone trafficking dangerous drugs into Virginia: Our investigative partners follow the narcotics and the money wherever they lead, and our prosecutions reflect that. This district will bring the full force of the law against traffickers who endanger the lives of Virginians, wherever they are."