Couple received thousands of pain pills by mail from Florida; deposited more than $300,000 in bank as payment
BECKLEY, W.Va. - A Wyoming County couple was sentenced to a total of 17 years in federal prison for conspiracy to distribute oxycodone and money laundering charges, announced U.S. Attorney Booth Goodwin. Christopher Brooks, 36, was sentenced to ten years in prison. Brooks’ co-defendant and wife Jennifer Brooks, 29, both of Glen Fork, Wyoming County, was sentenced to seven years in prison. The sentences were handed down today by United States District Judge Irene C. Berger in Beckley. Both defendants previously pleaded guilty in February.
From at least March 2010 until April 27, 2012, Mr. and Ms. Brooks received packages by mail containing oxycodone from a known individual located in Tampa, Fla. Mr. and Ms. Brooks received at least 130 express mail packages containing approximately 17,000 30-milligram oxycodone tablets between Oct. 15, 2010 and April 27, 2012. Mr. and Ms. Brooks deposited at least $300,000 cash into bank accounts that were owned and controlled by a known individual in exchange for the oxycodone tablets.
In a related matter, Keith Keiffer, 32, of Calvin, Nicholas County, was sentenced last month to four years in federal prison for his role in an oxycodone distribution and money laundering scheme. During the scheme, Keiffer received at least 15 express mail packages that contained a total of approximately 1,400 30-milligram oxycodone tablets from an individual located in Tampa, Fla. In exchange for the oxycodone tablets, Keiffer deposited at least $30,000 into bank accounts that were owned and controlled by his pill source of supply.
The Southern Regional Drug and Violent Crime Task Force, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, the Internal Revenue Service - Criminal Investigation, the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Wyoming County Sheriff’s Department conducted the investigations. Assistant United States Attorney Haley Bunn handled the prosecutions.
The cases were 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
