Putnam County man pleads guilty to federal drug charges

CHARLESTON, W.Va. – A Putnam County man pleaded guilty today to five federal drug charges, announced U.S. Attorney Booth Goodwin.  Christian Garrett Thornton, 29, of Bancroft, pleaded guilty in federal court in Charleston to four counts of distributing oxymorphone and one count of possessing oxymorphone with the intent to distribute it.  Thornton admitted that on four occasions between February 24 and March 23, 2015, he sold Opana pills in Kanawha and Putnam Counties to a cooperating individual working with law enforcement.  Thornton further admitted to possessing additional Opana pills on March 25, 2015, that he intended to distribute.

Thornton faces up to twenty years of imprisonment on each count when he is sentenced on January 13, 2016. 

The investigation was conducted by the Metropolitan Drug Enforcement Network Team. Assistant United States Attorney Jennifer Rada Herrald is in charge of the prosecution.

This case is 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 pills and heroin in communities across the Southern District.