Charleston, W.Va. - United States Attorney Booth Goodwin announced that Belinda Burdette, 43, of Racine, WV., was sentenced today in federal court in Charleston to five years of probation for using a cell phone to traffic drugs. Burdette previously pled guilty in March admitting that she had used her cell phone to arrange the delivery of oxycodone pills to a woman in Boone County. Burdette also admitted that she had obtained the oxycodone pills from a local K-Mart Pharmacy in Charleston where she was employed as a pharmacy technician and that neither she nor the person the pills were delivered to had a valid prescription for oxycodone.
The successful prosecution of Burdette was the result of the cooperative investigative efforts of agents of the Drug Enforcement Administration (“DEA") and the Boone County Sheriff’s Office.
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 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.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
