CHARLESTON, W.Va. – A Chicago man was sentenced today to three years in prison, to be followed by three years of supervised release, for his role in a multi-state drug trafficking organization (DTO) responsible for distributing methamphetamine, fentanyl, cocaine and marijuana in Parkersburg and elsewhere.
According to court documents and statements made in court, on August 31, 2021, Floyd Dermonta Ramsey, 42, was riding in a vehicle while in possession of 98 pills containing fentanyl, just over 68 grams of cocaine, and approximately 3 pounds of marijuana that he intended to distribute to others. The vehicle was pulled over in Parkersburg by a trooper with the West Virginia State Police who searched the vehicle and seized the controlled substances.
Ramsey was delivering the drugs to the residence of co-defendant Carlo Ramsey as part of a months-long conspiracy to distribute various controlled substances in Parkersburg. Months of surveillance by law enforcement officers established that Floyd Ramsey was a supplier of various controlled substances to the conspiracy, which he would regularly transport or arrange to have transported by others into the Parkersburg area from Chicago.
Floyd Ramsey pleaded guilty to possession with intent to distribute fentanyl, cocaine, and marijuana, and has a long criminal history that now includes six felony convictions.
Today’s sentencing is the latest result from a nearly year-long investigation dubbed “Long Time Coming.” Co-defendants Carlo Ramsey, Era Dawn Corder, Ambera Roberts, Matthew Edward Depew, and Robert Sanders, Jr., previously pleaded guilty to felony charges in United States District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia. Roberts was sentenced to 1 year and six months in prison. Depew was sentenced to five years in prison. All other defendants are awaiting sentencing. The investigation also resulted in more than a dozen arrests on state criminal complaints in Wood County.
United States Attorney Will Thompson made the announcement and commended the excellent investigative work of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), the Parkersburg Narcotics Task Force (PNTF), the Parkersburg Police Department, the West Virginia State Police, the United States Postal Inspection Service, the Vienna Police Department, the Williamstown Police Department, the Wood County Sheriff’s Office, the Cabell County Sheriff’s Department, the Boyd County, Kentucky, Sheriff’s Department, the Russell, Kentucky, Police Department and the Raceland, Kentucky, Police Department.
Senior United States District Judge John T. Copenhaver, Jr. imposed the sentence. Assistant United States Attorney Jeremy B. Wolfe prosecuted the case.
The investigation was part of the Department of Justice’s Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF). OCDETF was established in 1982 to conduct comprehensive, multilevel attacks on major drug trafficking and money laundering organizations and is the keystone of the Department of Justice’s drug reduction strategy. Today, OCDETF combines the resources and expertise of its member federal agencies in cooperation with state and local law enforcement. The principal mission of the OCDETF program is to identify, disrupt, and dismantle the most serious drug trafficking organizations, transnational criminal organizations, and money laundering organizations that present a significant threat to the public safety, economic, or national security of the United States.
A copy of this press release is located on the website of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of West Virginia. Related court documents and information can be found on PACER by searching for Case No. 2:21-cr-163.
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