Defendant reoffended immediately after conviction

A drug dealer has been declared a habitual offender and will serve 18 years in prison after being caught dealing enormous quantities of fentanyl.

James Demby, 33, was arrested in May 2023 after law enforcement became aware that he was selling drugs out of the Fairview Motel outside Wilmington. Demby was caught in a sting and was arrested with 315 bags of fentanyl in his possession, in addition to cocaine.

“Fentanyl is among the deadliest drugs on the street and a primary cause of Delaware’s staggering overdose fatalities,” said Attorney General Kathy Jennings. “It’s easy to lose sight of the gravity behind these numbers, but fentanyl is involved in 80% of our state’s fatal overdoses. We need to be unyielding in our work to save those in the grip of addiction, including doing everything in our power to find and stop the people who are flooding our communities with this poison.”

Demby had previously been declared a habitual offender and had served five years in prison on a firearms case that was later overturned. He was convicted in a bench trial of Tier 2 Fentanyl Dealing and No Tier Cocaine Dealing. After his newest conviction, and prior to sentencing, Demby posted bail and was once again found to be dealing drugs at a different motel Best Night Inn while pending sentencing. He was again declared a habitual offender and sentenced to 18 years in prison.

The lethal dose of fentanyl is 2 to 3 milligrams — roughly the size of a few grains of sand. The threshold for a Tier 2 quantity is roughly 1,000 times that amount.

Fentanyl has been responsible for the vast majority — roughly 80% — of Delaware’s overdose deaths in recent years. Fatal overdoses killed 527 Delawareans in 2023.

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