XENIA — A Fairborn man was sentenced to up to 16.5 years in prison Tuesday.

Austin Herald, 24, will serve at least 11 years in jail after pleading guilty in Greene County Common Pleas court to trafficking in a fentanyl-related compound. Once Herald is released, he will be on post-release supervision for two to five years.

According to a release from the Greene County Prosecutor’s Office, court documents show Herald sold quantities of methamphetamine and fentanyl to confidential informants working with the Greene County A.C.E. Drug Task Force beginning in September 2020. From information developed during these sales and other sources, police obtained a search warrant for both Herald’s home in Fairborn and a second home that he used in Dayton.

When police served these search warrants on March 4, 2021, they found inside the Dayton home more than a kilogram of fentanyl, more than 500 grams of methamphetamine, cocaine, firearms, respirators, cutting agents, and other tools used to prepare drugs for distribution (such as a blender and a hydraulic press), the release said. Inside Herald’s Fairborn home, police seized additional quantities of fentanyl and methamphetamine. During the searches, police also seized approximately $66,000 in cash, which was forfeited pursuant to Herald’s sentence.

“The drug epidemic continues unabated in our communities whether it is on the front pages or whether it leads the nightly newscasts,” said Greene County’s Chief Trial Counsel Andrew Hunt. “The drug dealers who profit from the sale of this poison must be rooted out and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. The Greene County A.C.E. Task Force works for the people of this community going after drug dealers every day. This conviction and sentence is due to their hard work.”

Greene County Prosecuting Attorney David D. Hayes announced the guilty plea and sentence handed down by Greene County Common Pleas Judge Adolfo A. Tornichio.