U.S. Attorney announces more results in Bluefield Pill Initiative

BLUEFIELD, W.Va. – United States Attorney Booth Goodwin today announced a two-year prison sentence and two guilty pleas in federal court in Bluefield.

Leonard Carey Rucker, 44, of Princeton, West Virginia, was sentenced to two years in federal prison for distributing heroin. He pleaded guilty in February, admitting that on November 4, 2014, he distributed heroin to a confidential informant in Princeton.

Craig Arnold Young, 42, of Lashmeet, West Virginia, pleaded guilty to using a communication facility to facilitate a felony, admitting that on December 16, 2014, he used a telephone in or near Lashmeet to help carry out a drug transaction with an informant. Shortly after the telephone conversation, Young distributed hydromorphone to the informant. Young faces up to four years in prison and a $250,000 fine when he is sentenced on November 3, 2015.

Aree Lumpkins, 19, of Bluefield, also pleaded guilty to use of a communications facility to facilitate a felony. He admitted that on October 30, 2014, he used a telephone in Bluefield to help set up a drug transaction with an informant. After the telephone conversation, he distributed cocaine base and hydromorphone to the informant. Lumpkins faces up to four years in prison and a $250,000 fine. His sentencing is scheduled for November 3, 2015.

The hearings in all the cases were conducted by Senior United States District Judge David A. Faber.

These cases were investigated by the Southern Regional Drug and Violent Crime Task Force in Bluefield under the Bluefield Pill Initiative, 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 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 opiates--including illegal painkillers and heroin--in communities across the Southern District. Assistant United States Attorney John File prosecuted these cases.