White Sulphur Springs woman pleads guilty to Federal drug charge

Beckley, W.Va. – United States Attorney Booth Goodwin announced today that a White Sulphur Springs woman pled guilty to a federal drug charge in federal court in Beckley. Paula Kay Butts, 50, pled guilty to using a communication facililty to facilitate a felony drug offense, admitting that on June 27, 2015, she used a telephone to help set up a drug deal with a confidential informant.  Later that day Butts completed the deal, distributing methamphetamine to the informant.  When Butts used the telephone, she was in or near White Sulphur Springs.

She faces up to four years in prison and a $250,000 fine when she is sentenced on January 28, 2016. This case was investigated by the Greenbrier Valley Drug and Violent Crime Task Force under the Greenbrier Valley Heroin and 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 sale and use of heroin and illicit prescription drugs.  The U.S. Attorney’s Office, joined by federal, state and local law enforcement agencies, is committed to aggressively pursuing and shutting down drug trafficking, eliminating open air drug markets, and curtailing the spread of heroin and other opiate painkillers in communities across the Southern District.  Assistant United States Attorney John File is handling the prosecution.

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