When a Virginia Beach drug dealer needed to buy a couple kilograms of fentanyl in 2017, she went to an unusual source of supply, according to court documents.
The owner of an Iowa day-care center.
Latosha Prather, 36, of Des Moines, was indicted Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Norfolk on 10 felonies, including conspiracy to distribute heroin and the synthetic opioid fentanyl. If convicted, she faces a minimum of 10 years in federal prison.
Court records do not list a defense attorney.
According to the indictment, Prather supplied large quantities of fentanyl, heroin and possibly cocaine to Michelle Best of Virginia Beach.
Best, a woman with a colorful history that includes a dog fighting conviction and a husband who disappeared under unusual circumstances, was sentenced earlier this year to 30 years in federal prison on charges she led a large scale drug ring responsible for at least one fatal overdose.
Many of the transactions occurred at her home on Southside Road, near Rudee Inlet.
But before Best could sell the drugs, she first needed to buy them from Prather, the indictment said.
Prather is accused of serving as Best’s supplier from at least August 2017 through March 2018.
The documents reference one specific sale in September 2017, where Best went to Prather’s home-based child care center to buy two kilograms of fentanyl.
According to the Iowa Department of Human Services, Prather’s day care can handle up to 16 children.
Another time, Prather brought the drugs to Virginia Beach to sell to Best in a Walmart parking lot, the indictment said.
The two women often used coded language to communicated about their drug deals, making it sound like they were discussing shoes instead of cocaine. In February 2018, Prather texted Best about how her “sister guy” had some “white shoes” he was willing to sell for $35 a pair.
“If interested you could bring someone to try them on,” Prather texted Best, according to the indictment.
When police raided Best’s home March 13, 2018, they found almost a pound of heroin and fentanyl, 21/2 pounds of marijuana and more than 4 pounds of cocaine, court documents said. They also found a commercial money counter, $41,940 in cash and a ledger.
The indictment said the heroin and fentanyl mixture came from Prather.
Scott Daugherty, 757-446-2343, scott.daugherty@pilotonline.com?
