CASPER, Wyo. — A Casper man faces up to five years in prison after pleading guilty to selling a counterfeit substance claiming to be methamphetamine to an informant.
“It was rocks from my driveway,” Lane Carroll Nicholson told Judge Catherine Wilking during his change-of-plea hearing on Thursday, September 4. “I saw it as an opportunity to make money.”
Nicholson, 21, had been observed by the Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigations as part of a broad investigation into the distribution of controlled substances in Natrona County, specifically methamphetamine.
According to the affidavit, agents observed an informant making the purchase from Nicholson on March 2. According to the affidavit, the substance closely resembled powder methamphetamine.
During the same hearing, Nicholson admitted to violating his probation. He was serving a suspended sentence following his conviction for fentanyl delivery in December of last year.
Under Wyoming law, the penalties for delivering or manufacturing a counterfeit substance are the same as those for the drugs they are intended to imitate.
