News

Asheville man sentenced for selling poppy seeds used for narcotic tea

By Lightning Reports, Published: April 11, 2024

A 34-year-old of Asheville man was sentenced to 27 months in prison on Thursday for selling “unwashed” poppy seeds buyers used to brew narcotic tea, U.S. Attorney Dena J. King announced.

According to court documents and court proceedings, between June 2021 and January 2023, Daniel Allen Childers engaged in a conspiracy to distribute unwashed poppy seeds. Unwashed poppy seeds are different from commercially available poppy seeds. Consumers of unwashed poppy seeds generally steep the seeds in hot water, which produces a Daniel Allen Childers that contains opiates such as morphine, codeine, and thebaine.
Court records show that, in June 2021 Childers contacted a wholesale supplier of unwashed poppy seeds and became a vendor for the seeds. Childers began to sell the seeds online through a website he created for his business, OrganaSeedSupply LLC.

OrganaSeed purported to sell baking goods supplies and services, including poppy seeds for commercial use. Contrary to the website’s claims, Childers exclusively sold unwashed poppy seeds and only listed the other products and services to appear legitimate. Court documents show that Childers obtained pallets of seeds from his supplier, each containing over 1,000 pounds of unwashed poppy seeds. In turn, Childers sold the unwashed poppy seeds online in various size bags, with one pound of seeds costing between $45 and $50. As Childers previously admitted in court documents, Childers knew that his customers would use the poppy seeds to make opiate tea and warned his customers that the seeds contained “opiate alkaloid residue.”
In July 2023, Childers pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute a material used to make a controlled substance.
In making the  announcement, King thanked Homeland Security Investigations, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, and the Asheville Police Department for their investigation of the case.