A major drug trafficking operation based in Detroit, Michigan, with ties to West Virginia, has been dismantled by a Homeland Security Task Force.
The trafficking enterprise was investigated for more than two years as officials traced movements, identified dealers, found stash houses, and discovered its leadership. The claimed participants coordinated throughout Michigan, Pennsylvania, Mississippi, Ohio, and West Virginia.
“This was not a minor case.” This went beyond routine police work,” stated Matthew L. Harvey, the United States Attorney for the Northern District of West Virginia, during a press conference. “This was a high-level, multi-state criminal enterprise, and it has now been dismantled because the Homeland Security Task Force, made up of our federal, state, and local partners, refused to give these traffickers one more inch of ground.”
The trafficking operation was allegedly run by Brendon Bragg, 32, of Detroit, Michigan. Harvey believes that Bragg was transporting methamphetamine, fentanyl, carfentanil, and cocaine “straight into Morgantown and Parkersburg. “
Eight pounds of meth, two pounds of fentanyl, more than half a pound of cocaine and cocaine base, $21,906 in cash, ten firearms, ammunition, and “carfentanil mixtures strong enough to kill hundreds of thousands of West Virginians,” Harvey said.
Zelda Wesley, Department of Justice Deputy Criminal Chief and Assistant U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of West Virginia, spoke on the significance of these narcotics seizures.
“This is monumental because every time we do one of these operations, we learn something new about investigative tactics, we learn something new about how drug trafficking operations operate, and the benefit is, of course, that the drugs are removed from the streets. Right now in Morgantown, you’re going to have a difficult time purchasing narcotics, and that’s the aim,” Wesley stated.
This is not the first time large quantities of drugs have been smuggled from Michigan to West Virginia.
“It is money. They can sell drugs in West Virginia for two to three times as much as they do in Detroit because Detroit is a source city and is plentiful, so when they fly here without a source city, they can expect a much higher profit from selling their narcotics,” Wesley explained.
Harvey agrees that while crime is reduced, West Virginia’s drug problem remains.
“We’ve had this problem for years, and it will continue to exist. We won’t be able to get rid of it overnight, but we must send a message to the source cities and people who want to profit from bringing their poison into our state that there may be a less dangerous place for them to push their poison into our communities. “Law enforcement is drug prevention,” Harvey explained.
The inquiry also included residences on Kingwood Street, Airport Boulevard, Chestnut Ridge Road, Rolling Hills Village, Dunkard Avenue, Cherry Street, and East Hillview Drive in Morgantown, WV.
This was a 114-count indictment, with 26 people in jail and two fugitives: Stewart Jenkins and Lori Murphy. West Virginians account for 17 of the arrests.
The announcement was attended by law enforcement officers from across West Virginia, including the West Virginia State Police, Morgantown Police Department, ATF Clarksburg, Granville Police Department, Monongalia County Sheriff’s Office, Preston County Sheriff’s Office, and West Virginia University Police Department.
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