Boone County Heroin Dealer Robert Donavan Buzzard Sentenced

Robert Donavan Buzzard, 42, of Bloomingrose, West Virginia, is headed to federal prison after being sentenced to one year and nine months for distributing heroin in the heart of coal country. The sentence, handed down by U.S. District Judge Joseph R. Goodwin, marks another blow in the ongoing crackdown on opioid trafficking in the Southern District of West Virginia.

Buzzard admitted to selling heroin on two separate occasions in January 2016 to a confidential informant working with law enforcement. The deals went down in Bloomingrose and Seth, tiny communities in Boone County where open-air drug trades have long plagued residents. Authorities say the transactions were part of a broader, targeted operation to dismantle a local network feeding the region’s addiction crisis.

The investigation was led by the U.S. Route 119 Drug Task Force, a joint command of federal, state, and local officers formed to combat the flood of heroin and prescription opioids into Appalachian towns. Assistant United States Attorney Joshua Hanks prosecuted the case, underscoring the Department of Justice’s aggressive stance on street-level dealers and mid-tier suppliers alike.

Buzzard isn’t the only one facing consequences. Daymeon Johnson of Detroit, Joyce Ann Zornes of Boone County, and Gregory Runion, also from Boone County, have all pleaded guilty and await sentencing. Their roles in the network are still under court scrutiny, but prosecutors allege they helped move and distribute the deadly drug across county lines.

Another co-defendant, Christopher Priestley of Boone County, already took his lumps—sentenced to two and a half years in federal prison for his role in the same heroin distribution ring. His stiffer sentence highlights the government’s strategy of leveraging tougher penalties to pressure lower-level dealers into cooperation.

This case is part of a sweeping initiative by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of West Virginia to dismantle drug trafficking operations that exploit economic despair. With overdose rates still climbing, federal and local agencies are doubling down on investigations, targeting not just kingpins but the entire supply chain—one arrest, one sentence, one town at a time.

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