Kanawha County woman gets probation and home confinement for possessing opiates for distribution

CHARLESTON, W.Va. – A London, West Virginia woman who received a package of oxycodone from New York through the U.S. mail, was sentenced today to five years of probation, with the first six months to be served in home confinement, announced U.S. Attorney Booth Goodwin.  Whitney Reanne Kent, 26, previously pleaded guilty in February of 2015, to possession with intent to distribute oxycodone.

On December 5, 2012, the United States Postal Inspection Service and a member of the Metro Drug Enforcement Network Taskforce (MDENT) were conducting interdiction efforts at the Charleston Post Office to curb drug trafficking through the U.S. Mail.  They intercepted a package addressed to Kent.  Upon executing a federal search warrant on the package, investigators seized  approximately 89 30mg oxycodone pills.  On December 7, 2012, when Kent arrived at the Post Office to retrieve the package, investigators confronted her about the pills.  She admitted she knew the pills were in the package and that she was there to pick them up for someone else.  United States District Judge Thomas E. Johnston handed down the sentence.

The Metro Drug Enforcement Network Team and the United States Postal Inspection Service conducted the investigation.  Assistant United States Attorney Joshua C. Hanks handled the prosecution.

This case was 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.