Nebraska woman accused of using daughter to deliver narcotics

YORK COUNTY, Neb. (KOLN) — A York County woman faces several felony charges after using her daughter to sell Xanax and morphine, according to authorities.

Deputies arrested 36-year-old Shantell Perkins on Thursday. She has since been charged with possession of a controlled substance, using a minor to distribute a controlled substance and child abuse.

The sheriff’s office assigned a DHHS intake to a deputy on May 1. A teen told her therapist that her mother had been forcing her to deliver drugs for several years, and the authorities were alerted.

Perkins lived with the girl and two other children at a Benedict home, all three children have since been removed from her custody. Each child was forensically interviewed regarding the allegation earlier this month.

The children told deputies that Perkins regularly took pills — ranging between prescription hydrocodone, oxycontin, morphine and Xanax — an arrest affidavit shows. They’d commonly come home to find her unconscious, but she would later explain to them that she’d merely suffered a seizure, deputies said.

One child told police they begged Perkins not to take the pills while home alone, fearing “they might find her dead,” authorities wrote. A records check for calls for service at Perkin’s address showed authorities had been called to the home multiple times since 2022.

The teen described arguments with her mother often turning physical — getting whipped with a belt or a coat hanger or sometimes being backed into a wall. Deputies think the other two children may have suffered similar abuse, and they wrote that Perkins would often accuse her children of stealing her pills.

In the meantime, Perkins had been using the teen to deliver Xanax, morphine and other unidentified pills to multiple people over the years, according to the affidavit.

The deliveries began sometime in 2018 when the family lived in South Dakota, deputies said. The teen said she never got any money for the transactions, thinking the drugs had been paid for in advance.

According to court records, the girl delivered pills on at least 50 occasions between two communities in South Dakota, then in Benedict, York and Seward.

Authorities think Perkins would persuade the girl with promises of gifts for making the deliveries, and other times she’d threaten to ground the teen if she disobeyed.

Jail records show Perkins’ bond was set at 10% of $50,000. Her first court hearing is scheduled for Wednesday.

If you or someone you know is struggling with opioid or substance abuse, The National Drug Hotline and SAMHSA provide 24/7 resources to battle addiction.

The National Drugs Hotline can be contacted at 844-289-0879, and SAMHSA is available at 1-800-662-4357. More information on battling opioid abuse in Nebraska can be found at this link.

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