Charleston pill dealer pleads guilty in Federal court

CHARLESTON, W.Va. – A Charleston man caught smuggling oxycodone through the mail pleaded guilty today, announced Acting United States Attorney Carol Casto. Kenneth Edward Campbell, 48, entered his guilty plea in federal court to conspiracy to distribute oxycodone.

On August 23, 2013, the United States Postal Inspection Service intercepted a package containing oxycodone that had been sent from Detroit to an address in Charleston. An undercover officer posing as a mail carrier delivered the package and confronted the man who accepted delivery. That man told police that Campbell had offered to give him oxycodone if he would allow the drug parcel to be delivered to his residence. Officers used the man to conduct a controlled delivery of the package to Campbell at his place of employment on the West Side of Charleston. Campbell was arrested upon taking possession of the package.

Campbell faces up to 20 years in federal prison when he is sentenced on May 11, 2016.

This case was investigated by the United States Postal Inspection Service and the Metropolitan Drug Enforcement Network Team. Assistant United States Attorney Joshua Hanks is in charge of the prosecution. The hearing was held before United States District Judge John T. Copenhaver, Jr.

This prosecution is 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 pills and heroin in communities across the Southern District. 

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