WHEELING, WEST VIRGINIA – Kenyatta Banks, Jr., of Canal Winchester, Ohio was sentenced today to 57 months of incarceration for his role in a drug conspiracy that spanned several states, U.S. Attorney Bill Powell announced.
Banks, also known as “Yatta,” age 30, pled guilty to one count of “Conspiracy to Distribute and to Possess with the Intent to Distribute Controlled Substances” in August 2020. Banks admitted to working with others to traffic methamphetamine, cocaine and heroin in Wetzel County, Ohio, Georgia, as well as into the southern district of West Virginia.
Assistant U.S. Attorneys Robert H. McWilliams, Jr. and Shawn M. Adkins prosecuted the case on behalf of the government. The Drug Enforcement Administration, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, the West Virginia State Police, the Wetzel County Sheriff’s Office, the Marshall County Sheriff’s Office, and the New Martinsville Police Department investigated.
This case is part of an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF) investigation. OCDETF identifies, disrupts, and dismantles the highest-level drug traffickers, money launderers, gangs, and transnational criminal organizations that threaten the United States by using a prosecutor-led, intelligence-driven, multi-agency approach that leverages the strengths of federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies against criminal networks.
U.S. District Judge John Preston Bailey presided.