Kanawha County Man Pleads Guilty to Methamphetamine Conspiracy

CHARLESTON, W.Va. – Justin Allen Bowen, 40, of Charleston, pleaded guilty today to conspiracy to distribute 50 grams or more of methamphetamine.

According to court documents and statements made in court, Bowen received methamphetamine from his supplier for several months prior to December 5, 2022.  Bowen would receive several pounds of methamphetamine at a time and distribute it to several of his customers throughout Kanawha County.

On December 5, 2023, law enforcement officers executed search warrants at locations where Bowen had delivered methamphetamine the night before and seized a total of approximately 15 pounds of methamphetamine found in three locations.     

Bowen is scheduled to be sentenced on June 8, 2023, and faces a faces a mandatory minimum of  10 years and up to life in prison, five years and up to a lifetime of supervised release, and a $10 million fine.

Jasper Wemh, Richard Allen Bowen, McKenzie Bowen, Kimberly Dawn Legg, Larry Wayne Legg, Nicholas Bradford Confere, and Stanley Aaron Burkes were indicted along with Justin Allen Bowen and are scheduled for trial on April 25, 2023. An indictment is merely an allegation and all defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.

United States Attorney Will Thompson made the announcement and commended the investigative work of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Metropolitan Drug Enforcement Network Team (MDENT), Charleston Police Department, West Virginia State Police, Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), and Kanawha County Sheriff’s Office.

Chief United States District Judge Thomas E. Johnston presided over the hearing. Assistant United States Attorneys Jeremy B. Wolfe and Nowles Heinrich are prosecuting the case.

The investigation was part of the Department of Justice’s Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF). OCDETF was established in 1982 to conduct comprehensive, multilevel attacks on major drug trafficking and money laundering organizations and is the keystone of the Department of Justice’s drug reduction strategy. Today, OCDETF combines the resources and expertise of its member federal agencies in cooperation with state and local law enforcement. The principal mission of the OCDETF program is to identify, disrupt, and dismantle the most serious drug trafficking organizations, transnational criminal organizations, and money laundering organizations that present a significant threat to the public safety, economic, or national security of the United States.

A copy of this press release is located on the website of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of West Virginia. Related court documents and information can be found on PACER by searching for Case No. 2:23-cr-4.

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