FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Dec. 5, 2011
EAST BANK MAN PLEADS GUILTY TO FEDERAL OXYCODONE CHARGE
CHARLESTON, W.Va. – Joe Robert Taylor, 27, of East Bank, Kanawha County, West Virginia, pleaded guilty today in federal court before United States District Judge John T. Copenhaver, Jr. to possession with intent to distribute oxycodone. On April 30, 2010, the defendant was stopped by a deputy working for the Kanawha County Sheriff’s Department in East, Bank, and was subsequently found to be in possession of 220 80-milligram oxycodone pills and $943 in U.S. currency. The defendant further admitted that he had intended to sell the pills.
Taylor faces up to 20 years in prison and a $1 million fine when he is sentenced on March 14, 2012.
This case was 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 prescription drugs. The U.S. Attorney’s Office, joined by various federal, state and local law enforcement agencies, remain 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.
The Huntington Violent Crimes and Drug Task Force conducted the investigation. Assistant United States Attorney William King is in charge of the prosecution.
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