Anthony Jones, Heroin and Cocaine Distribution, West Virginia 2023

MARTINSBURG, W.Va. — A local drug dealer used his phone to push poison through the Eastern Panhandle. Anthony Jones, 43, also known as ‘Moosa,’ was sentenced today to 30 months in federal prison for his role in a heroin, cocaine, and fentanyl distribution ring that pumped deadly narcotics into Berkeley County streets.

Jones, of Martinsburg, West Virginia, pled guilty in December 2019 to one count of ‘Unlawful Use of Communication Facility.’ He admitted to using a mobile phone to arrange a heroin deal in December 2018 — a transaction caught in the widening net of a federal task force targeting entrenched drug networks.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Lara K. Omps-Botteicher, Special Assistant U.S. Attorney C. Lydia Lehman of the Berkeley County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Timothy D. Helman. They hammered the charges home with evidence gathered through coordinated surveillance, wire intercepts, and field investigations.

Law enforcement agencies involved included the Federal Bureau of Investigation, West Virginia State Police, and the Eastern Panhandle Drug & Violent Crimes Task Force — a HIDTA-funded unit designed to gut regional narcotics operations. Local forces from Berkeley, Jefferson, Martinsburg, Charles Town, and Ranson police departments all contributed to the takedown.

Funding came from the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force Program (OCDETF), the DOJ’s premier strike force against high-level drug traffickers. Since 1982, OCDETF has dismantled cartels and street-level syndicates alike by pooling federal, state, and local firepower to crush supply chains from the top down.

Chief U.S. District Judge Gina M. Groh handed down the sentence, underscoring the court’s zero tolerance for drug operations that fuel addiction and violence. Jones now begins his 30-month federal term, just one conviction in a broader crackdown on the opioid pipeline strangling rural America.

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