Two drug dealers sentenced for Federal heroin crimes

CHARLESTON, W.Va. – Acting United States Attorney Carol Casto announced that two heroin dealers were sentenced today on federal drug charges.

Andre Luke Perryman, 24, of Detroit, was sentenced to a year and a day in federal prison for aiding and abetting the distribution of heroin. Perryman previously pleaded guilty to the federal drug crime in October of 2015. On December 10, 2014, officers with the Charleston Police Department’s Special Enforcement Unit used a confidential informant to purchase heroin from Perryman. The informant called Perryman’s co-defendant, Robert James Bellamy, to set up the drug deal, which occurred at Rite Aid on Rebecca Street in Charleston. After the drug deal, law enforcement arrested Perryman. He admitted that he had come to Charleston from Detroit in July of 2014, and since his arrival he had been working with Bellamy to sell heroin in the area. Perryman further admitted that he and Bellamy distributed over 250 grams of heroin during that time period. Bellamy has pleaded guilty to distribution of heroin and faces up to 20 years in federal prison when he is sentenced on March 23, 2016.

As the result of a separate investigation, Devonte L. Andrews, 23, of Charleston, was sentenced to eight months in federal prison for distribution of heroin. Andrews previously pleaded guilty in October of 2015 to the federal drug charge. Andrews admitted that on August 26, 2014, he sold heroin to a confidential informant working with the Charleston Police Department’s Special Enforcement Unit. The drug deal took place on 21st Street in Charleston.

The investigation of Perryman and Bellamy was conducted by the Charleston Police Department’s Special Enforcement Unit. Assistant United States Attorney Haley Bunn is handling the prosecution of both Perryman and Bellamy. United States District Judge John T. Copenhaver, Jr., imposed Perryman’s sentence. 

The Charleston Police Department’s Special Enforcement Unit and the Metropolitan Drug Enforcement Network Team conducted the investigation of Andrews. Assistant United States Attorney John Frail is in charge of the prosecution. Andrews’ sentence was imposed by United States District Judge Thomas E. Johnston.

These cases are 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. 

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