Cedar Park man receives 12 months in prison for impersonating FBI agent

CEDAR PARK, Texas - A Cedar Park man has been sentenced to a year in prison for impersonating an FBI agent in 2019.

Johnathan Jefferson Ferris, 52, was convicted last June on two counts of impersonating a federal agent.

The US Attorney's Office says evidence presented during the trial revealed on multiple occasions in July and August in 2019, Ferris entered a Temple pharmacy looking to fill an out-of-state prescription for fentanyl patches.

Fentanyl-induced overdoses increasing, more drugs being laced with it

Fentanyl’s potency is what makes it so dangerous to often unsuspecting consumers.

Ferris had always identified himself to the pharmacy employee as an out-of-town FBI agent on a temporary assignment. Ferris wore a lanyard with a fake FBI identification card attached and used fraudulent documentation purportedly from the FBI to support his request for filling the fentanyl prescriptions, says the US Attorney's Office.

Fentanyl, according to the National Institute on Drug Abuse, is a powerful synthetic opioid analgesic similar to morphine but 50 to 100 times more potent. It is also a Schedule II prescription drug, and it is typically used to treat patients with severe pain or to manage pain after surgery.

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