CHARLESTON, W.Va. — A small Cabell County pharmacy that distributed more oxycodone in 2014 than every other pharmacy in West Virginia except for two is at the heart of a multi-state investigation that’s lead to convictions of 19 people for illegal pain pill distribution.
On Wednesday, Carol Casto, acting U.S. attorney for West Virginia’s Southern District, handed out big checks for more than $1.1 million in forfeited assets, connected to the investigation focused on A+ Care Pharmacy in Barboursville, to several law enforcement agencies involved in the case.
“Anytime that there’s a prosecution of 19 individuals and a recovery like this, it’s a significant case,” Casto said.
Because of their roles in the investigation, the Charleston Police Department is receiving $972,000 in forfeiture funds while the Huntington Police Department and the Boone County Sheriff’s Department are each getting more than $86,000.
“This will help to augment our regular budget and it allows us to buy equipment and to perform functions that we might not otherwise be able to do because of financial concerns,” said Huntington Police Chief Joe Ciccarelli.
“But I think, in the first instance, the whole asset forfeiture piece is important because it deprives the criminals of the proceeds of their illegal activities.”
In all, more than $2.3 million, a drug supplier’s Florida home and a Lexus SUV were seized during the course of the investigation that also included the Internal Revenue Service’s Criminal Investigation Division, State Police and the West Virginia National Guard.
Casto called the operation a “drug conspiracy” that involved drug suppliers and couriers from Florida who shipped illegal drugs to West Virginia, drug dealers in Lincoln County and Kentucky and deposits of drug proceeds in banks in Huntington and Barboursville.
A pharmacy tech at A+ Care Pharmacy, Kofi Ohene Agyekum, a Ghana native, is currently serving a 46 month prison sentence for his role in the drug distribution scheme. Casto said more than 51,000 oxycodone pills were seized when his home and business were searched.
“It is no secret that our communities have been plagued with out of state drug dealers who import poison into them,” Casto said. “Let me be clear: We will use every law enforcement tool, we will partner with every local, state and federal law enforcement agency to identify them, to investigate them and to bring them to justice.”
The forfeiture funds are being distributed through the U.S. Department of Treasury, not the U.S. Department of Justice’s Asset Forfeiture Program which has seen such forfeiture payments for law enforcement agencies suspended, at least for now.