Charleston, W.Va. - United States Attorney Booth Goodwin announced the prosecution of two more heroin dealers today in federal court in Charleston, West Virginia. A Charleston man was sentenced for distribution of heroin, and a Detroit man entered a guilty plea to aiding and abetting the distribution of heroin.
Michael Ealm, 36, of Charleston, was sentenced today to three years and ten months in federal prison for distribution of heroin. Ealm previously pleaded guilty to the federal drug charge and admitted that on three occasions in January, February, and March of 2015, he sold heroin to a confidential informant. On March 4, 2015, Metropolitan Drug Enforcement Network Team officers executed a search warrant at Ealm’s residence in Charleston. When the officers entered the residence, they caught Ealm trying to flush heroin down the toilet. During the search, officers recovered handguns and additional heroin, and Ealm gave a statement admitting that he had been selling heroin in the Charleston area since January of 2015.
Additionally, Robert James Bellamy, 31, of Detroit, pleaded guilty today to aiding and abetting the distribution of heroin. On Oct. 22, 2014, officers with Charleston Police Department’s Special Enforcement Unit (SEU) used a confidential informant to purchase heroin from Bellamy in the Kanawha City area of Charleston. On three additional occasions, SEU members conducted controlled purchases of heroin either directly from Bellamy or from an associate working at his direction. Bellamy admitted that from January through December of 2014, he distributed at least 400 grams of heroin in and around Kanawha County. Bellamy faces up to 20 years in federal prison and a $1 million fine when he is sentenced in federal court in Charleston on March 23, 2016.
The investigation of Ealm was conducted by the Metropolitan Drug Enforcement Network Team. The Charleston Police Department’s Special Enforcement Unit investigated Bellamy. Assistant United States Attorney Haley Bunn is handling the prosecution of both of these cases.
These 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 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.
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Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
