A “treasure map” drawn by a man in prison led the way to a valuable container he buried in his Virginia yard before his arrest, federal officials said.
Deputies and federal investigators got there first and found that the buried “treasure” was fentanyl , leading to drug charges against two men, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia said in an Oct. 7 news release.
McClatchy News reached out to both men’s attorneys Oct. 8 following the announcement of their guilty pleas but did not immediately receive a response.
A 39-year-old man was arrested in December 2021 and sentenced to nearly seven years in prison on charges of being a felon in possession of a firearm and ammunition, federal officials said.
He let another man, 34, move into his home while he was incarcerated, officials said.
But before his arrest, he buried 383 grams of fentanyl on his property to be sold at a later date, officials said.
When he was in prison in May 2023, he used the back of a sales invoice to draw a map of his property that included the location of the drugs, and he told the man living at his home to find them and sell them, according to investigators.
Sometime in May or June 2023, the man tried to find the drugs but couldn’t, officials said. He planned to meet up with someone else so that person could help search for the drugs, but before that day, law enforcement showed up with a warrant, investigators said.
Deputies with the Isle of Wight County Sheriff’s Office, alongside the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, searched the home and said they found the map in a bedroom.
“Following the map, the officers discovered the spot where the drugs were buried and recovered a container with the fentanyl inside,” prosecutors said.
The already-incarcerated man pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute 40 grams or more of fentanyl, while the other man pleaded guilty to being an accessory after the fact to maintaining a drug-involved premises, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. They’re both scheduled for sentencing in spring 2025.
Isle of Wight County is part of the Hampton Roads region near the southeast coast of Virginia.
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