MORGANTOWN — A Morgantown woman was sentenced to two years in prison on a federal drug charge regarding her involvement in a heroin, oxycodone, and cocaine distribution operation, said Bill Powell, U.S. attorney for the Northern District of West Virginia, in a press release.
Haley Hunt, 27, pled guilty to one count of “Unlawful Use of Communication Facility” in February 2019. Hunt admitted to using a phone to help distribute a controlled substance in April 2018 in Monongalia County.
The Dominion Post previously reported that Hunt was one of 21 people arrested locally and in Detroit as part of Operation Lion’s Den, a multi-state investigation with federal, state and local law enforcement targeting the Maurice Swift drug organization.
The investigation into the Maurice Swift organization began in summer 2017 as a result of a successful prosecution of the Terry Thomas organization, Dewayne Haddix, with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives, said at the time. The Thomas organization was suspected of trafficking at least 600,000 Oxycodone pills into north-central West Virginia.
The Swift organization, a well-structured, multistate operation, was suspected to be the supplier to the Thomas organization, Haddix said. In Detroit, people with clean records provided logistical support by renting cars and apartments for drug dealers.
“In West Virginia, the Swift organization used a network of local dealers to facilitate drug transactions and recruit new customers, helping the Detroit traffickers to sell more drugs to more people more often,” Haddix said.
Along with Hunt, the arrestees included three others from Morgantown, one from Maidsville and one from Granville.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Zelda E. Wesley prosecuted the case on behalf of the government. The Drug Enforcement Administration, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives and the Mon Metro Drug & Violent Crimes Task Force, a HIDTA-funded initiative, investigated. The United States Marshal Service assisted.
U.S. District Judge Thomas S. Kleeh presided.
