Joseph Lee Church, Heroin Possession, West Virginia 2014

CHARLESTON, W.Va. – A Columbus, Ohio man was sentenced to 33 months in federal prison for possession of multiple controlled substances with intent to distribute.

The defendant, Joseph Lee Church, 36, of Columbus, Ohio, was sentenced by United States District Court Judge Thomas E. Johnston in Charleston, West Virginia.

Church pleaded guilty in May 2014, to possession of, with the intent to distribute, heroin, hydromorphone, oxycodone, hydrocodone and amphetamine.

He previously admitted this to Kanawha County sheriff’s deputies when arrested in the Rand, West Virginia, area on December 10, 2011. Church said the drugs had been brought to the area from Columbus.

The case was investigated by the Kanawha County Sheriff’s Department. Assistant United States Attorney John Frail handled the prosecution of this case.

This case is being prosecuted as part of an ongoing effort led by the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of West Virginia to combat the illicit sale and misuse of heroin and prescription drugs.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office, joined by federal, state and local law enforcement agencies, is committed to aggressively pursuing and shutting down illegal pill trafficking, eliminating open air drug markets, and curtailing the spread of opiate painkillers in communities across the Southern District.

MORE FEDERAL CRIME NEWS

Drug Trafficking

Centera Bioscience, Unapproved Drug Distribution, New Hampshire 2023

Feb 5, 2024

Drug Trafficking

Christopher O. Reza, Methamphetamine Trafficking, New Mexico 2022

Feb 27, 2015

Drug Trafficking

Ascencion Garza Jr., Cocaine Possession with Intent to Distribute, Texas 2022

Jul 11, 2023

Drug Trafficking

Joseph Garth, Aiding and Abetting the Distribution of Cocaine Base, West Virginia 2020

Feb 23, 2021