Monongalia County man sentenced for drug distribution

CLARKSBURG, WEST VIRGINIA – Christopher Howard, of Morgantown, West Virginia, was sentenced today to 41 months incarceration for his role in a heroin, oxycodone, and cocaine distribution operation, United States Attorney Bill Powell announced.
 
Howard, age 32, pled guilty to one count of “Unlawful Use of Communication Facility” in January 2019. Howard admitted to using a phone to distribute and conspire to distribute a controlled substance in April 2018 in Monongalia County.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Zelda E. Wesley prosecuted the case on behalf of the government. The Drug Enforcement Administration, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives and the Mon Metro Drug & Violent Crimes Task Force, a HIDTA-funded initiative, investigated. 

The investigation was funded in part by the federal Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force Program (OCDETF). The OCDETF program supplies critical federal funding and coordination that allows federal and state agencies to work together to successfully identify, investigate, and prosecute major interstate and international drug trafficking organizations and other criminal enterprises.

U.S. District Judge Thomas S. Kleeh presided.