Another member of Newman Drug Network pleads guilty to drug trafficking

HUNTINGTON, W.Va. –  United States Attorney Booth Goodwin announced that Mark Silverburg, also known as “Dip,” 41, of Lexington, Kentucky and Alpharetta, Georgia, was sentenced to 41 months imprisonment in federal court in Huntington.  Silverburg had previously pleaded guilty in October of 2014 to conspiring with others to distribute cocaine and marijuana.  Silverburg admitted that between approximately 2010 and January 20, 2014, he supplied cocaine and marijuana for Kenneth Newman, also known as “K-Kutta.” Silverburg, along with others working for him, transported cocaine from the Lexington, Kentucky area to Newman in Huntington.  One of those individuals, Leroy Wilson, previously plead guilty to his role as a courier of drugs and money for Silverburg.

On January 8, 2014, Wilson transported approximately $6,800 from Newman’s residence on Artisan Avenue in Huntington to Silverburg near Lexington, Kentucky. On January 9, 2014, Silverburg instructed Wilson to travel to Huntington from Lexington to Newman’s residence.  Prior to that drive, Silverburg placed a brown paper bag in the trunk of the car Wilson was driving. Once Wilson arrived at Newman’s residence, Newman took two plastic bags full of cocaine out of the brown paper bag. In a statement given to agents with the Drug Enforcement Administration, Wilson estimated the total weight of the cocaine to be between six and nine ounces.

Silverburg, Kenneth and George Newman, and seven other defendants have pled guilty to various charges stemming from the yearlong investigation by agents the DEA, Huntington Police Department, ATF, and the Metropolitan Drug Enforcement Network Team.  The investigation revealed that in addition to cocaine and heroin, members of the Newman drug trafficking conspiracy were responsible for distributing oxycodone, crack cocaine, morphine, MDMA, known on the street as “Molly” or “Ecstasy,”  and marijuana.

The case is being 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 and heroin.  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 opiate painkillers and heroin in communities across the Southern District.