Crystal River woman sentenced to 27 years for trafficking in fentanyl
Courtroom photos courtesy of State Attorney's Office (Duarte-Wright wearing orange).
State Attorney's Office, Fifth Judicial Circuit of Florida
Marion, Lake, Citrus, Sumter and Hernando counties
Marion, Lake, Citrus, Sumter and Hernando counties
Inverness, Florida - On March 31, 2025, 41 year-old Heather Lynne Duarte-Wright of Crystal River, Florida, a seven-time convicted felon, was sentenced to serve 27 years in the Florida Department of Corrections, after being found guilty by a jury in January of this year on charges of trafficking in fentanyl and possession of drug paraphernalia.
Duarte-Wright's case was prosecuted by Assistant State Attorneys Patsey Jacobs and Elizabeth Colombrito.
"Fentanyl continues to claim lives in our community, making it crucial for our office to prosecute fentanyl traffickers and hold them accountable for the crippling and deadly impacts they've inflicted on our community," said Chief Assistant State Attorney Walter Forgie.
On August 10, 2023, a Citrus County Sheriff's Office deputy conducted a traffic stop on a motor scooter due to it not having a license plate attached to it. Duarte-Wright was the passenger on the motor scooter. When she stepped off the scooter, the deputy noticed a black zippered pouch, halfway sticking out from under the bottom of her shirt.
When the deputy questioned Duarte-Wright about the pouch, she admitted that it contained drug paraphernalia and the drug fentanyl. Inside the pouch, the deputy found a transparent plastic baggy that contained a white substance and hypodermic needles. The white substance weighed approximately 20 grams and field tested as positive for fentanyl.
Additional testing by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement confirmed the presence of fentanyl.