April 22nd 2025 – On February 25, 2025, James Blevins, 34, was convicted of trafficking fentanyl
and possession with intent to distribute fentanyl after entering a guilty plea in the Catoosa County
Superior Court.
As part of an investigation spearheaded by the Catoosa County Sheriff’s Office and lead by
Detective Chris Lyons, Blevins sold fentanyl to individuals on several different occasions. After a search
warrant was executed at Blevins’s home, approximately 60 grams of fentanyl, a pill press, and over
$10,000 in cash was located. After his arrest, Blevins admitted that he would buy approximately 1 ounce
of fentanyl per week in Chattanooga and then bring it back to Catoosa County where he would “cut it”
and turn it into 2 ounces of pressed fentanyl, which he would then sell locally for $100 per gram.
The case was prosecuted by Assistant District Attorney David Wolfe and the guilty plea hearing
was presided over by Chief Judge Brian House. After entering a guilty plea on February 25, 2025, James
Blevins was sentenced to 30 years with the first 10 years to be served in prison, without the possibility
of parole.
District Attorney Clayton M. Fuller, since taking office in March of 2023, has made fighting
fentanyl his top prosecutorial priority. “I want to thank the relentless dedication to fight the scourge of
fentanyl of Sheriff Gary Sisk and Detective Chris Lyons of the Catoosa County Sheriff’s Office, their
exceptional work not only brought a criminal to account — it saved lives. Let this sentence be a warning
to every fentanyl dealer: we are coming for you with the full force of the law. You will find no safe
harbor, and the cartels won’t be able to hide you. The fight against dealers of death, the Mexican cartels
who trafficked this poison across our borders, and the Chinese Communist Party who provides the
fentanyl components to the cartels will not falter. We will not fail to rid our Main Streets of this
poison.”