Dunbar heroin dealer pleads guilty in federal court

CHARLESTON, W.Va. – U.S. Attorney Booth Goodwin today announced that William Leon Sales, 37, of Dunbar, West Virginia, pleaded guilty to possession with intent to distribute heroin, in a hearing before U.S. District Judge John T. Copenhaver, Jr., in Charleston.

On July 16, 2014, officers with the Metropolitan Drug Enforcement Network Team (MDENT) located approximately 75 grams of heroin and more than $4,000 in cash at Sales’ home in Dunbar. Sales admitted he intended to distribute the heroin in the Dunbar area.

On July 1, 2014, Sales provided a gram of heroin to a middleman to distribute for $150 to a confidential informant working with MDENT. Sales told the informant he had another half-ounce of heroin in his residence if the informant wished to purchase additional heroin.

Sales faces up to 20 years in federal prison, and is scheduled to be sentenced on March 24, 2015.

MDENT conducted the investigation. Assistant United States Attorney Jennifer Rada Herrald is in charge of the prosecution.

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 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.