HUNTINGTON, W.Va. - U.S. Attorney Booth Goodwin announced today that a Detroit man pleaded guilty in federal court to distribution of a quantity oxycodone. Robert Louis Smith, 40, admitted that on March 12, 2010, he met a confidential informant at a predetermined location, entered the informant’s vehicle and distributed 229 80-milligram oxycodone tablets and 257 40-milligram oxycodone tablets. Following the controlled drug transaction, the defendant returned to his vehicle with a paper bag containing prerecorded buy money that was provided by the informant. A short time later, Smith’s vehicle was stopped by Huntington Police Department officers. Police arrested Smith and the prerecorded buy money was recovered from the passenger side rear floorboard of the defendant’s vehicle.
Smith faces up to 20 years in prison and a $1 million fine when he is sentenced on May 13, 2013 by United States District Chief Judge Robert C. Chambers.
The Drug Enforcement Administration and the Huntington Police Department conducted the investigation. Assistant United States Attorney Joseph F. Adams is in charge of the prosecution.
This case 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. 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
