This post was originally published on this site
From Staff Reports
CHARLESTON – A Boone County man pleaded guilty today to a federal drug charge, announced United States Attorney Mike Stuart. Roger Dane Adkins, 45, of Morrisvale entered his guilty plea to obtaining hydromorphone and fentanyl by subterfuge. U.S. Attorney Stuart commended the Drug Enforcement Administration’s Tactical Diversion Squad and the Charleston Police Department for the investigation.
In 2016 and early 2017, Adkins was employed as a parcel delivery driver whose route included several Kanawha County pharmacies operating within hospitals or other medical service providers. In March 2017, a hospital pharmacist reported that controlled substances had been removed from a number of parcels that had been shipped for disposal. Investigators from DEA and the Charleston Police Department contacted other pharmacies in Charleston to see whether anyone else had experienced a similar loss. They identified several other pharmacies on the same route that had also reported the loss of controlled substances from parcels shipped to the same location for disposal.
On March 22, 2017, investigators coordinated with one of the pharmacies and the disposal location to set up the shipment of a dummy parcel containing a tracking device. Once Adkins took the parcel into his delivery vehicle, investigators approached and found him in the process of opening it. He waived his Miranda rights and admitted that he had been opening similar packages for several months in order to steal drugs. He further admitted that after removing some of the drugs, he would reseal and send the packages along the intended route in order to avoid detection.
Adkins faces up to four years in federal prison when he is sentenced on April 25, 2018.
Assistant United States Attorney Joshua C. Hanks is responsible for the prosecution. The plea hearing was held before United States District Judge John T. Copenhaver, Jr.
This case is 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 pill trafficking, eliminating open air drug markets, and curtailing the spread of opiate painkillers and heroin in communities across the Southern District.