PARK CITY, Utah — A Las Vegas man who was previously implicated in the overdose deaths of two Park City teens in 2016 has been arrested on new federal drug charges.
According to court documents, Colin Andrew Shapard, 21, is accused of delivering a large number of opioid pills to the Park City area in recent months, including ones that were used in a non-fatal overdose in February.
Shapard was previously accused of distributing the drugs that resulted in the 2016 overdose deaths of two 13-year-old Treasure Mountain Junior High students that shocked the local community and spurred ongoing conversations about substance abuse and mental health.
Documents say that Shapard's father had him flown to Hawaii, and out of local jurisdiction, in 2016 when he first became a suspect. He was later prosecuted in the Utah juvenile court system where felony charges were dismissed after Shapard plead guilty to a misdemeanor Reckless Endangerment charge and was sentenced to probation and drug treatment.
Shapard later enrolled as a student at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
The documents state, when Shapard was accused of distributing the drugs that killed the two teens he showed no remorse and when asked if he ever thought about the victim's parents he "laughed and said no."
When Park City and Summit County investigators discovered Shapard was allegedly distributing drugs to a middle-man in the Park City area in November 2021, they launched an investigation. That person, according to the filing, provided drugs to high school students in the area.
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According to the federal court documents, Shapard has been a skilled opioid supplier for the past eight years, using shell businesses, escrow accounts, money transfers, and other advanced techniques to cover his tracks.
An undercover agent allegedly purchased pills from Shapard using cryptocurrencies via a messaging app on many occasions and photos reportedly show the pills and a person they believe is Shapard shipping the packages from a USPS office at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
SEE ALSO: Parents who lost children to fentanyl push for reform
Multiple packages shipped to Utah were intercepted by US Postal Inspectors, according to the documents, and shipments to Park City included a large number of pills, many of which were marked and sold for $30 to $45 each.
Shapard allegedly informed clients he was giving them oxycodone tablets, but the pills tested positive for fentanyl, according to the federal filing. Which caused the Park City Police Department to issue a public warning on February 18 that fentanyl was circulating in the area.
According to the documents, on February 10, an 18-year-old man consumed several pills with the identical markings as those provided by Shapard and medical workers used Narcan to revive him after he overdosed.
Federal prosecutors say that Shapard poses a flight risk and should be held in custody until his trial.
"There was a moment of realization between the investigators and the prosecutors office when we realized," Jay Tinkler, Asst. Special Agent in Charge, DEA told FOX 13 News. "Not unlike any other investigation we just took great care and diligence and making sure that we follow policies and the laws in these buys that occurred, these are all things that are going to be prosecutable in court. We had the I’s dotted and the T’s crossed in this case.”
Shapard faces a minimum penalty of twenty years in jail and the potential of life in prison, according to the filing.
DEA officials say this is another reminder to not take any pill from anyone who is not a doctor or a pharmacist because so many are counterfeit and many contain fentanyl. Even 2 milligrams of fentanyl can result in a fatal overdose.
