FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE June 12, 2012
NORTH CAROLINA PILL DEALERS SENTENCED TO FEDERAL PRISON FOR OXYCODONE DISTRIBUTION
CHARLESTON, W.Va. – United States Attorney Booth Goodwin announced today that two pill dealers from North Carolina were each sentenced to one year and six months in prison for aiding and abetting the distribution of oxycodone. Rachel Ann Lakey, 53, of Calabash, NC, previously pleaded guilty in April. Her co-defendant William Franklin Bobbitt, Jr., 55, of Concord, NC, previously pleaded guilty in March. Both defendants admitted that on October 20, 2011, they conspired to sell 150 30-milligram oxycodone tablets to an informant working for the Central West Virginia Drug and Violent Crimes Task Force (CWVDTF) in exchange for $4,500. Bobbitt admitted that at the time of the transaction, he gave Lakey the tablets, who then distributed the tablets to the informant. The illegal drug transaction occurred in Summersville, Nicholas County, W.Va.
Law enforcement agents arrested both defendants following the drug buy. Task force agents searched
Lakey’s vehicle and seized the money used during the illegal oxycodone purchase as well as several firearms.
Lakey also admitted to her participation of two October 2011 illegal oxycodone transactions and at least one additional transaction in September 2011, where she sold between 140 and 150 30-milligram oxycodone tablets.
The matters were 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, remains 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 Central West Virginia Drug and Violent Crimes Task Force conducted the investigations. Assistant United States Attorney Joshua Hanks handled the prosecutions. United States District Judge John T. Copenhaver, Jr. presided over the sentencings.
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