Huntington Man Copped to Drug Ring Role

Roy Bills, 51, of Huntington, West Virginia, is headed to federal prison for his role in a sprawling multistate drug ring that flooded the region with hundreds of pounds of marijuana. Bills was sentenced today to a year and a day in federal prison after pleading guilty to conspiracy to distribute marijuana, closing a chapter in a years-long federal investigation.

The operation, which ran from the summer of 2014 through May 2016, centered on Corey Bruce Toney, who imported large quantities of marijuana from California and funneled them into the Huntington drug trade. Bills made at least two cross-country trips to transport the drugs, admitting to hauling 100 pounds in October 2015 and another 80 pounds in March 2016—both shipments delivered directly to Toney for further distribution.

Toney, already behind bars, was sentenced in January 2017 to 10 years and three months after pleading guilty to distributing heroin. He admitted to trafficking not only marijuana but also crack cocaine, Xanax, and heroin across southern West Virginia, including in Huntington and Charleston, in a network that stretched from the West Coast to Appalachia.

The takedown was the result of a long-term probe led by the Drug Enforcement Administration, with boots on the ground from the West Virginia State Police, Putnam County Sheriff’s Department, Huntington Police Department, FBI Drug Task Force, Ohio Highway Patrol, ATF, and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service. Their combined efforts dismantled a well-oiled machine built on interstate smuggling and street-level distribution.

Bills isn’t the only one to fall. In all, ten people have been convicted in connection with the ring. Sean Lee Braggs, Samuel E. Nelson, III, Deandra Sheen Jones, and Atari Seantay Brown have pleaded guilty and await sentencing. Arthur James Canada got three years and 10 months, Matthew Michael Meadows got 18 months, Parker Wyatt Mays got a year and a day, and Tanisha Lynette Wooding was sentenced to 18 months.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Joseph F. Adams led the prosecutions, with Chief U.S. District Judge Robert C. Chambers handing down the sentences. The case is part of a broader crackdown by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of West Virginia, determined to shut down open-air markets, disrupt trafficking pipelines, and choke off the flow of illegal drugs poisoning communities across the region.

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