Detroit Drug Dealer Sentenced To More Than Three Years For Bringing Heroin To Huntington

Huntington, W.Va. – U.S. Attorney Booth Goodwin announced today that James Anthony Jones, 28, of Detroit, Michigan, was sentenced in federal court in Huntington, West Virginia to 37 months imprisonment for possession with the intent to deliver heroin.  United States District Court Chief Judge Robert C. Chambers handed down the sentence.

In November of 2012, Jones and his girlfriend took a Greyhound bus from Detroit, Michigan to Huntington to deliver heroin for Zachary Merritt.  Upon their arrival in at the Huntington bus station, Jones gave the heroin to his girlfriend and directed her to conceal it inside her body.  Instead, Jones’ girlfriend placed the heroin under the seat of the taxi they took after arriving at the Huntington bus station.  Shortly after leaving the bus station, Huntington police officers stopped the taxi and seized the heroin. 

As part of his plea agreement, Jones admitted that he participated in trafficking 528 grams of heroin to Huntington for resale.  Merritt, also from Detroit and the source of the heroin transported by Jones, has pled guilty to his role in the heroin trafficking and was sentenced to almost seven years in federal prison.

This 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.  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 in communities across the Southern District.