FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE March 14, 2012
EAST BANK MAN SENTENCED TO TWO YEARS IN PRISON FOR OXYCODONE DISTRIBUTION
CHARLESTON, W.Va. – Joe Robert Taylor, 27, of East Bank, Kanawha County, West Virginia, was sentenced today to two years’ imprisonment by United States District Judge John T. Copenhaver, Jr. for possession with intent to distribute oxycodone. Taylor pleaded guilty in December. On April 30, 2010, the defendant was stopped by a deputy working for the Kanawha County Sheriff’s Department in East Bank, and subsequently found to be in possession of 220 80-milligram oxycodone pills and $943 in U.S. currency. The defendant admitted that he had intended to sell the pills.
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 Kanawha County Sheriff’s Department conducted the investigation. Assistant United States Attorney William King handled the prosecution.
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