Justin Michael Lowe, Methamphetamine Trafficking, Virginia 2024

ABINGDON, VIRGINIA — Five defendants have pleaded guilty to federal drug charges tied to a sprawling conspiracy that funneled methamphetamine and oxycodone from Las Vegas into the heart of Appalachia. Justin Michael Lowe, 24, Brandon Cody Trivett, 23, Lamar Allen Skipper, 27, Tanner Morris Curd, 23, and Gary Brandon Childress, 25, admitted in U.S. District Court today to conspiring to distribute the deadly drugs across Southwest Virginia and Eastern Kentucky.

The bust is part of a broader takedown—Operation Leaving Las Vegas—that has already netted 32 indictments. Each defendant pleaded guilty to a one-count Information charging them with conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine and/or oxycodone. Skipper, 27, also admitted to a separate count of conspiring to commit money laundering, as investigators uncovered a web of illicit cash transfers stretching from rural Virginia back to suppliers in Nevada.

According to evidence laid out by Assistant U.S. Attorney Zachary T. Lee, law enforcement first zeroed in on the operation in 2014. The trafficking organization used FedEx and USPS to ship crystal meth and oxycodone in packages disguised as ordinary mail. Recipients in Abingdon and Eastern Kentucky would then distribute the drugs locally, feeding a growing addiction crisis in already vulnerable communities.

The investigation revealed the staggering scale of the enterprise: at least $1,000,000 in drug proceeds cycled through the network. The money flowed back to Las Vegas via bank accounts tied to suppliers, as well as through Western Union and MoneyGram transfers—methods chosen to avoid detection but ultimately traced by federal agents.

Multiple agencies converged on the case, including the Drug Enforcement Administration, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, IRS Criminal Investigations, U.S. Marshals Service, Virginia State Police, and local law enforcement from Washington County, Abingdon, Marion, and Smyth County. The collaboration underscores the federal government’s aggressive stance on cross-state drug networks.

“These five individuals were part of a larger drug conspiracy that brought methamphetamine, and other dangerous drugs into Virginia,” said U.S. Attorney John P. Fishwick Jr. “These drugs ruin lives and communities and we will continue to be vigilant in taking down large scale conspiracies like this one.” Assistant U.S. Attorney Lee will prosecute the case as sentencing dates are set in the Western District of Virginia.

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