Upshur County man sentenced for drug charge

CLARKSBURG, WEST VIRGINIA – Marlin E. Beckner, of Buckhannon, West Virginia, was sentenced today to 63 months incarceration for methamphetamine distribution charge, United States Attorney Bill Powell announced.

Beckner, age 44, pled guilty to one count of “Possession with Intent to Distribute Methamphetamine” in August 2018. Beckner admitted to possessing crystal methamphetamine, also known as ice, in September 2017 in Upshur County.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Stephen D. Warner prosecuted the case on behalf of the government. The Bureau of Alcohol, Firearms, Tobacco and Explosives; the Mountain Region Drug & Violent Crime Task Force; the Greater Harrison Drug &Violent Crime Task Force, a HIDTA-funded initiative; the West Virginia State Police; Upshur County Sheriff’s Office; Lewis County Sheriff’s Office; the Buckhannon Police Department; and the Weston Police Department investigated. 

The investigation was funded 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 John Preston Bailey presided.