Source: Butte County District Attorney’s Office Press Release
Oroville, Butte County, California — In one of Butte County’s first uses of the new Proposition 36 fentanyl “weight enhancement” provisions, an Oroville drug dealer today admitted to possessing over five ounces of fentanyl for sale that will add an additional five years to his four-year prison sentence.
Carl Bly, 55, of Oroville, was in Butte County Superior Court this morning where he pleaded no contest to:
- Possession of fentanyl for sale
- Felon in possession of a firearm
As a part of his plea, Bly also admitted that he possessed 5.085 ounces of fentanyl and forfeited $3040 in cash that was seized from his home as his narcotics proceeds.
Butte County District Attorney Mike Ramsey said Bly was caught in the Butte County Sheriff’s parking lot on February 6, 2025, when a sheriff’s drug-sniffing dog alerted to the presence of narcotics in Bly’s car.
Bly had driven to the sheriff’s office that day to serve his SWAP time and parked his vehicle in the parking lot.
Bly had previously been sentenced to work in the Sheriff’s Work Alternative Program (SWAP) for a 2021 petty theft conviction.
The search of Bly’s vehicle located the fentanyl in the trunk with an additional 3.2 grams in the center console of the vehicle.
This was equivalent to over 1400 doses of fentanyl.
A later search warrant to Bly’s residence located the cash as well as a loaded firearm.
Bly is prohibited from possessing firearms due to prior felony convictions.
Ramsey said that thanks to the new amendments made as a result of Proposition 36’s passage in November of 2024, the Butte County District Attorney’s Office was able to charge Bly with a sentencing enhancement based on the quantity of fentanyl that was located.
Under the old laws, the maximum sentence Bly would have been facing for his possession of the fentanyl was four years in the county jail.
Under the new provisions, Bly is facing an additional 5 years for the quantity of fentanyl, all of which must be served in the state prison.
Bly is scheduled to be sentenced on April 30, 2025, where he will be facing a maximum of 9 years and 8 months in the state prison.
