Aaron Reed, Sean Dickerson Sentenced in Dual WV Drug Cases

Aaron Matthew Reed, 37, of Romney, West Virginia, and Sean Dickerson, 29, of Martinsburg, West Virginia, were each sentenced to 18 months in federal prison today for separate drug-related crimes that exposed the ongoing crisis gripping the state’s Eastern Panhandle.

Reed was handed an 18-month sentence after a jury found him guilty in October 2016 of ‘Possession of Material Used in the Manufacture of Methamphetamine.’ The charge, prosecuted aggressively by federal authorities, highlights the government’s crackdown on precursor substances fueling the region’s meth epidemic.

Dickerson received the same 18-month sentence after pleading guilty in November 2016 to ‘Possession with the Intent to Distribute Heroin.’ His arrest and conviction stem from a targeted operation by the Eastern Panhandle Drug and Violent Crime Task Force, a HIDTA-funded unit built to dismantle local trafficking networks.

Both cases were prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Anna Z. Krasinski, with Shawn M. Adkins providing support in the Reed investigation. The prosecutions reflect a coordinated federal-state push to disrupt drug supply chains in one of the nation’s hardest-hit regions.

Reed’s case was investigated by a triad of agencies: the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, the West Virginia Division of Natural Resources Criminal Investigation, and the Hampshire County Sheriff’s Office—underscoring the multi-agency effort required to combat rural drug manufacturing.

Chief U.S. District Judge Gina M. Groh presided over both sentencing hearings in Martinsburg. No additional fines or supervised release terms were announced, but the back-to-back convictions send a clear message: federal prosecutors are treating every link in the drug trade as a high-priority target.