Charleston man pleads guilty to Federal heroin crime

CHARLESTON, W.Va. – A Charleston heroin dealer pleaded guilty today to a federal drug crime, announced Acting United States Attorney Carol Casto. Daniel Andrew Hicks, 42, entered his guilty plea to distribution of heroin.

Hicks admitted that on several occasions in January and February of 2016, he sold heroin to a confidential informant working with law enforcement. Following his arrest on February 18, 2016, law enforcement found Hicks with close to five grams of heroin that he intended to distribute. Additionally, officers executed a search warrant on an apartment Hicks had rented at 112 Henson Avenue in South Charleston and seized $4,924 in cash stored in a shoe box on the kitchen counter. Next to the shoe box, officers also discovered three sets of digital scales and three cell phones.

Hicks faces up to 20 years in federal prison when he is sentenced on September 28, 2016.

The Metropolitan Drug Enforcement Network Team conducted the investigation. Assistant United States Attorney Monica D. Coleman is handling the prosecution. The plea hearing was held before United States District Judge Thomas E. Johnston.

This prosecution was brought 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.

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