Drug dealers face charges in federal court in Bluefield

Bluefield, W.Va. – United States Attorney Booth Goodwin announced that two drug dealers appeared in federal court in Bluefield, West Virginia.  Shawn Owen Gillespie II, 25, of Shady Spring, West Virginia was sentenced to 18 months in prison for possession with intent to distribute heroin.  Gillespie pled guilty on December 3, 2014, admitting that on May 12, 2014, he possessed more than 400 pouches of heroin, which he intended to sell.  Gillespie possessed the heroin in Princeton, West Virginia.  Adrian Dewayne King, also known as “Fled,” 38, of Bluefield, West Virginia, pled guilty to using a communication facility to facilitate a felony.  King admitted that on January 21, 2015, he had a telephone conversation with a confidential informant (CI) to set up a drug deal. A few minutes after the telephone conversation, King met the CI as planned, and sold hydromorphone to the CI.  The phone call and drug deal took place in Bluefield, West Virginia. King faces up to four years in prison and a $250, 000 fine when he is sentenced on August 13, 2015.

These cases were investigated by the Southern Regional Drug and Violent Crime Task Force as part of the Bluefield Pill Initiative, 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.  Assistant United States Attorney John File handled the prosecutions of Gillespie and King.