Cape woman arrested for fentanyl powder possession in Bernie

BERNIE, Mo. — A Cape Girardeau woman faces charges after she was arrested in Stoddard County for possessing a powdered form of fentanyl — an increasingly popular and highly dangerous opioid pain medication. 

Tanya Nichole Rankin, 37, of Cape Girardeau is charged with possession of the controlled substance, fentanyl powder.

According to the probable cause statement by Lt. Roy Boyce with Bernie Police Department, at about 2:15 p.m. Monday, he was dispatched to Dollar General Store, located at 721 S. Walnut St., in Bernie in reference to a suspected shoplifter. The caller stated there was a woman in the store with reddish hair that she believed was shoplifting items. She also stated she believed the woman to be under the influence of drugs.

Upon Boyce’s arrival, he contacted the store manager who said the woman

was in the greeting cards aisle. The manager told Boyce the woman had been picking up items and dropping them. Boyce said he then made contact with the woman.

“I first noticed that she had a shopping cart full with several items and that her clothes appeared to be very wet,” Boyce said. “I believed this was because it had been raining all day. I then asked the woman if she had been shoplifting items in the store; she said no.”

At this point, Boyd said he noticed her speech was slurred and her eyes were watery. He asked her if she had the money to pay for the items in her cart. She said yes and then explained that she had $12. Boyce said he then told her that would probably not be enough to pay for all the items she had. He asked for her identification.

“She then opened a pink wallet she had in the cart and pulled out her Social Security card and gave it to me,” Boyd said in the probable cause statement. “As she was digging around in the wallet, I noticed as she unzipped the coin pocket a white capsule. I then pointed at it and asked her: ‘What is that?’ She said fentanyl.”

The woman, who was identified by her Missouri identification card as Rankin, was placed under arrest and handcuffed. Boyce said he then opened the coin pocket of the wallet that was unzipped and saw six capsules that contained a white powder. He also noticed a plastic straw in another pocket of the wallet that contained a white powder residue.

Boyce said he patted down Rankin’s coat and located two more capsules that contained a white powder residue. Rankin was then transported to the Bernie City Jail, where she was booked into the jail for possession of a controlled substance.

At the jail, Boyce said he tested some of the white powder, and it tested positive for fentanyl.

Bond was set at $7,500 cash only, and she was booked into the Bernie City Jail.

“This is the first case in Stoddard County of fentanyl in its powdered form,” said Bernie Chief of Police Justin K. Allen. “Fentanyl typically comes in a solid or liquid form. Fentanyl powder is merely a new medium for fentanyl to enter the system. Fentanyl powder is even more dangerous than regular fentanyl due to its vast mobility and granular nature.”

When in its powdered form, fentanyl is not contained in one area, making accidental exposure far more likely than when dealing with the fentanyl patch.

“There are several cases where traffic stops turned drug busts of powdered fentanyl almost took several police officers’ lives,” Allen said.

According to the Drug Enforcement Administration, the drug is up to 100 times stronger than morphine, and the Center for Disease Control and Prevention said fentanyl was responsible for more than 28,400 overdose deaths in 2017, the most recent year for which figures are available.