Detroit man convicted by federal jury for oxymorphone trafficking

Drugs Were Concealed in a Box of Laundry Detergent

Huntington, W.Va. – United States Attorney Booth Goodwin announced that Kendall Lamar Spears, 35, of Detroit, Michigan, was convicted today of possessing oxymorphone with the intent to distribute it.  The conviction follows a two-day jury trial in federal court in Huntington.  The evidence presented at the trial established that in November of 2012, Spears paid a Huntington couple to drive him to Detroit under the pretext of visiting family.  The following day, Spears left the couple for a brief time and returned with bags from a Dollar Store.  On the return trip from Detroit to Huntington, the van was stopped by law enforcement officers based on a tip that it was carrying illegal drugs.  Spears was seated in the back of the van.  A trained law enforcement drug dog sniffed the van and indicated that narcotics were likely present.  Officers then searched the van and discovered 304 15 mg oxymorphone pills.  The pills were hidden in a detergent box in one of the bags carried by Spears.

Spears faces up to 20 years imprisonment and a $1 million fine when he is sentenced on March 3, 2015.

The case was investigated by the Huntington Violent Crime and Drug Task Force and the Huntington Police Department.  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.