United States Attorney Booth Goodwin announced that Shannon T. Murray, age 42, of Elkview, West Virginia pled guilty today in federal court in Charleston to aiding in the distribution of oxycodone. At the hearing, Murray admitted that in February of 2013, he transported oxycodone pills to a Kirkwood Drive residence where the pills were sold to a confidential informant working with law enforcement. Shortly after the drug deal, police executed a search warrant at the residence and recovered the money used by the confidential informant to buy the drugs from Murray, and also found additional oxycodone pills. Murray was in the residence when officers arrived and was arrested. Murray faces up to 20 years imprisonment and a $1,000,000.00 fine when he is sentenced on November 12, 2014.
The case was investigated by the Metropolitan Drug Enforcement Network Team (MDENT) and is 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.
