Detroit Man Latham Gets 3 Years for Heroin Conspiracy

Anthony D. Latham, a 25-year-old from Detroit, is headed to federal prison for his role in a heroin distribution ring that flooded Mason County, West Virginia, with hundreds of grams of the deadly drug. Latham was sentenced today to three years and nine months behind bars after pleading guilty to conspiracy to distribute heroin, marking another strike in the federal crackdown on opioid networks gutting Appalachia.

Between January 2013 and July 21, 2014, Latham and a network of accomplices ran a mobile heroin operation that stretched from Ohio into the heart of Point Pleasant. Using stash houses in Gallipolis, Ohio, the crew stored and repackaged heroin brought up from Columbus and Chillicothe before pushing it into West Virginia. Customers from Point Pleasant made the trek north to buy, while Latham and others crossed the state line to distribute from safe houses.

Latham admitted he was personally responsible for distributing up to 700 grams of heroin during the 18-month conspiracy—a quantity capable of fueling thousands of doses on the street. The operation thrived in the shadows, relying on burner phones, coded language, and rotating locations to evade law enforcement. But federal investigators eventually closed in, tracking movements, transactions, and communications that sealed Latham’s fate.

The Drug Enforcement Administration Task Force, with support from the Putnam County Sheriff’s Department and the Gallia-Meigs County, Ohio, Major Crimes Task Force, led the investigation. Surveillance, wire intercepts, and cooperating witnesses exposed the full scope of the network. Latham, once a key cog in the supply chain, became a cooperating defendant—but not before the damage was done across small-town communities already reeling from overdose spikes.

Assistant United States Attorney Joseph F. Adams prosecuted the case, arguing for accountability in a region ravaged by addiction. U.S. Attorney Carol Casto emphasized the Southern District of West Virginia’s relentless focus on dismantling drug pipelines. ‘We are not just chasing users,’ Casto said in a statement. ‘We are targeting the suppliers who profit from pain.’

Chief United States District Judge Robert C. Chambers handed down the 45-month sentence, underscoring the severity of cross-state narcotics trafficking. This prosecution is part of an ongoing federal initiative to shut down open-air markets and choke off the flow of heroin and prescription opioids. Latham will serve his time under federal custody, with no early release. The Southern District vows more cases to come.

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