Princeton man sentenced to 27 months in Federal prison on drug charge

Bluefield, W.Va. – United States Attorney Booth Goodwin announced that Scotty Edward Blankenship was sentenced in federal court in Bluefield yesterday to 27 months in federal prison for using a telephone to facilitate the sale of hydromorphone.  Blankenship, 54, of Princeton, pled guilty in June of 2015, admitting that on October 17, 2014, he used a telephone to set up a drug deal, and that shortly after that conversation he sold two hydromorphone pills to an informant.  Blankenship also admitted that he distributed ten additional pills during the course of the investigation.

The case was investigated by the Southern Regional Drug and Violent Crime Task Force under 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.

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