MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — When the so-called ring leader of a drug pipeline from Philadelphia, Pa. to Morgantown, entered a guilty plea in federal court this week, U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of W.Va. said it was a triumph in eradicating heroin and prescription painkillers from the region.
“I can say this; it put a dent in it. It made a bigger impact than just a single defendant indictment,” said Bill Ihlenfeld in an interview on WAJR’s Morgantown-AM.
In 2013, investigators and the prosecutor’s office learned of a trafficking operation that included suspects from Morgantown, Buckhannon and across state lines.
“The Philly boys as we called them would distribute to locals. They would redistribute the pills and the heroin to users and addicts in the region,” Ihlenfeld explained. “And then, they would travel back to the Philadelphia region to re-up and come back. It was just a constant back and forth. We called it a pipeline from 2013 until the end of 2014.”
In November, 21 arrests were made in a 65- count federal indictment.
Since that time, a number of co-defendants have gone through federal court entering drug pleas and are now awaiting sentencing.
This week, Juwan “Whiz” Woods entered a guilty plea on a charge of oxycodone distribution. Investigators say he orchestrated the pipeline and sold pain killers within 1,000 feet of Wiles Hill Playground in 2014.
He faces up to 20 years in prison and a fine of 2 million dollars.
When the FBI, Mon Valley Drug Task Force and police in Monongalia County and Morgantown collaborated on a drug pipeline bust in November last year, they brought down more than 20 suspects accused of infiltrating North Central West Virginia with heroin and prescription painkillers.
U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of West Virginia said some major players in drug trafficking were arrested.
They were “some pretty bad guys,” said Ihlenfeld. “It wouldn’t be appropriate for me to specify who’s got what criminal history. But, we’ve got some pretty bad guys in this case. And, the court will consider that criminal history at the time of sentencing.”
Ihlenfeld has maintained the collaboration between federal and local investigators was vital and relied heavily on high tech surveillance equipment and tools.
“I’d like to think this is the first step in really pushing back against the out-of-state drug traffickers,” said Ihlenfeld.
In fact, he hints of the release of information in similar cases in the future.
“I think you’ll hear about this in the not-so-distant future. The task force is ramping up even more and coming together in a way that it never has. I’m excited to talk about that sometime down the road.”