Chapmanville man pleads guilty to selling opana

CHARLESTON, W.Va. – A Chapmanville, W.Va. man admitted to selling the powerful prescription painkiller oxymorphone, commonly known as Opana. Joseph Allen Rogers, 41, pleaded guilty today in federal court in Charleston to distribution of oxymorphone, announced U.S. Attorney Booth Goodwin.

Rogers admitted that he sold Opana to a confidential informant on three separate occasions on April 14, 15, and 16, 2014. Officers with the U.S. 119 Task Force also executed a search warrant on Rogers’ residence and located additional oxymorphone, oxycodone, cash, and a firearm.

Rogers faces up to 20 years in prison when he is sentenced on August 10, 2015 by United States District Judge John T. Copenhaver, Jr.

The investigation was conducted by the U.S. 119 Task Force and the West Virginia State Police. Assistant United States Attorney Haley Bunn is handling the prosecution.

The prosecution is part of an ongoing effort 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.