News

Lester Luna, 30, of Hagerstown, Maryland, has admitted his role in a drug trafficking organization in Berkeley County. According to court documents, Luna was one of the members of the drug trafficking conspiracy that sold large quantities of fentanyl, heroin, and cocaine.

Charles Edward Scott, 31, of Damascus, Maryland, was sentenced to 156 months in prison for his leadership of a drug conspiracy that sold the drug “boot” in the Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia. According to court documents and statements made in court, Scott, also known as “Whop Whop,” led a group of people selling Eutylone, also known as “boot,” in Berkeley and Jefferson Counties.

John Austin Perkins, III, 45, of Hagerstown, Maryland, was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison for lying to federal agents in the hopes of early parole from a sentence he was serving for another crime. According to court documents and statements made in court, Perkins was serving time for a parole violation in Maryland when he devised a scheme to obtain early release. 

Seven people have been sentenced for their roles in a drug trafficking organization that spanned from Baltimore to the Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia. The indictment, returned in January 2024 against Gary Brown, Jr., and eighty-one others, charged the defendants with distributing substantial amounts of fentanyl, methamphetamine, and cocaine in Berkeley and Jefferson Counties.

Washington-Baltimore HIDTA has recognized two Assistant United States Attorneys from the United States Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of West Virginia and members of the Eastern Panhandle Drug & Violent Crimes Task Force for an investigation that dismantled a tri-state drug trafficking operation.

Daryl Smith, 50, of Wheeling, West Virginia, was sentenced today to 120 months in federal prison for the distribution of cocaine base. According to court documents and statements made in court, Smith was selling cocaine base in Ohio County and was involved with a drug trafficking operation that spanned from Las Vegas, Nevada to the Ohio Valley.

Three men appeared in federal court this week for their involvement with a drug trafficking operation in the Northern Panhandle of West Virginia. James Kidder, also known as “Jamey,” 47, of Martins Ferry, Ohio, was sentenced to 36 months in federal prison for possession with intent to distribute cocaine.

A federal grand jury has returned indictments, charging five individuals with federal firearms violations. Dustin Allen Wayne Plants, 31, of Moundsville, West Virginia, was indicted for the unlawful possession of a firearm and ammunition.

MARTINSBURG, WEST VIRGINIA – Two people have been indicted for fraudulently obtaining COVID-19 relief funding on behalf of a West Virginia resident, according to United States Attorney William Ihlenfeld. Kimberly VanKline, 56, of Hyattsville, Maryland, and Rhonda Brown-Moore, 64, of Brooklyn, New York, were indicted yesterday for wire fraud and conspiracy to commit wire fraud related to the improper receipt of funds from the COVID Relief Act.

Ten people have been indicted for the trafficking of drugs in Ohio County, according to United States Attorney William Ihlenfeld. Defendants from Ohio and West Virginia have been charged with the sale of fentanyl, heroin, methamphetamine, and cocaine.

Bolarinwa Salau, 30, of Rockaway Beach, New York, has been charged with identity theft. According to the court documents, West Virginia State Police stopped a vehicle driven by Salau.

James Mansfield Davis, 67, of Morgantown, West Virginia, has been charged with failing to surrender for a federal sentence. According to the filed indictment, Davis was sentenced to 82 months for a child pornography charge in the Northern District of West Virginia.