Bryant admitted to selling powerful painkillers from his Nicholas Co. auto care business
CHARLESTON, W.Va. - U.S. Attorney Booth Goodwin announced today that a Nicholas County man was sentenced to five years in federal prison for selling morphine. Ralph Donald Bryant II, 41, of Summersville, Nicholas County, W.Va., previously pleaded guilty in September 2012 to distribution of morphine. Bryant admitted that on August 4, 2010, he sold one morphine tablet to an individual cooperating with law enforcement authorities in exchange for $120. Bryant further admitted that the illegal pill transaction took place at his auto care business located in Summersville. The defendant also admitted that from the fall of 2007 until April 11, 2011, he distributed multiple controlled substances including oxymorphone and oxycodone in and around the Nicholas County area.
The Central West Virginia Drug Task Force conducted the investigation. Assistant United States Attorney John Frail handled the prosecution. The sentence was imposed by United States District Judge Thomas E. Johnston.
This case was 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. 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 in communities across the Southern District.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
