[dropcap]T[/dropcap]he Anchorage woman who smuggled the synthetic opioid fentanyl into the Hiland Mountain Correctional Center as an inmate in October of 2017 was sentenced before U.S. District Judge Ralph R. Beistline in federal court, it was announced by U.S. Attorney Bryan Schroeder in a press release on Wednesday.

37-year-old Dorothy Elizabeth Lantz was sentenced to 40 months in prison and three years supervised release on three counts of distribution of a controlled substance following her previous guilty plea on the charges.

Lantz smuggled in the contraband into the correctional center on October 30th of 2017 after she was transferred there from the Anchorage Jail where she was jailed following a state probation violation. She brought the illicit drug with her by hiding it in a body cavity.

Upon her arrival, Lantz traded fentanyl to an inmate there that afternoon and to two other inmates the following day. She traded the drug for commissary.

The drug, more than 50 times stronger than heroin and known on the streets as “Gray Death,” resulted in four women overdosing on the drug. All four women were resuscitated, one of whom was resuscitated twice on two separate occasions. 

During the investigation into the overdoses, .38 grams of the drug was recovered from one of the overdose victims it was revealed in court. 

Judge Beistline said that the overdoses were a “significant event” which required a significant sentence, and pointed out that had the women not been resuscitated, Lantz would have served years not months.

The court deferred a ruling on whether Lantz would be responsible for paying related costs such as hospital bills for 30 days.

  contraband, conviction, correctional, dorothy, fentanyl, hiland, lantz, overdose, prison, sentencing, smuggling