Robert Donavan Buzzard, a 42-year-old from Bloomingrose, West Virginia, admitted in federal court today that he sold heroin on two separate occasions in January 2016, caving under the weight of a federal prosecution that could land him behind bars for two decades.
Buzzard sold the deadly opioid to a confidential informant working directly with law enforcement, according to court records filed in Charleston, W.Va. The transactions went down in Bloomingrose and the nearby town of Seth—both hollows in the heart of Boone County’s long-battling war against the opioid crisis.
His guilty plea, entered before U.S. District Judge Joseph R. Goodwin, seals a grim chapter in a case built by the U.S. Route 119 Drug Task Force, a joint agency unit that has cracked down on the region’s rampant drug trade. Assistant United States Attorney Joshua Hanks is leading the prosecution.
Buzzard now stares down a maximum sentence of 20 years in federal prison when he returns for sentencing on January 19, 2017. No plea deal details were disclosed, and federal sentencing guidelines suggest little mercy for repeat or high-volume distributors—though specifics of Buzzard’s criminal history were not released.
This case is part of a broader federal crackdown led by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of West Virginia, which has declared war on the illegal flow of prescription pills and heroin. From the hollers to the highways, law enforcement is targeting open-air markets and street-level dealers feeding a public health emergency.
The Southern District continues to prioritize drug interdiction, working alongside federal, state, and local agencies to dismantle trafficking networks. Buzzard’s guilty plea is one more notch in a campaign that’s far from over. Follow updates at SDWVNews.
RELATED: Boone County Heroin Dealer Christopher Priestley Pleads Guilty
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Key Facts
- State: West Virginia
- Agency: DOJ USAO
- Category: Drug Trafficking
- Source: Official Source ↗
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