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Pain Pill Trafficking Penalty
By: Associated Press
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CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — A man has been sentenced to 11 years and seven months in prison for a Florida-to-West Virginia pain pill trafficking operation.
Forty-six-year-old William Harrison Meade was sentenced Tuesday in federal court in Charleston, West Virginia, for his September 2015 guilty plea to conspiring to distribute oxycodone.
Federal prosecutors say Meade conspired with individuals in both states to distribute the drug in 2010 and 2011 and funneled sale proceeds to bank accounts.
One of Meade’s associates, Lester Taylor, of Daytona Beach, Florida, acquired oxycodone pills in Florida and sent them to West Virginia for distribution by Meade. Taylor was sentenced in November to 10 years.
The ex-owner of a Barboursville, West Virginia, pharmacy that filled Taylor’s prescriptions received a five-year prison term for avoiding federal cash reporting requirements.