Monongalia County Woman Sentenced For Running Drug Trafficking Operation
Tuesday, December 17, 2024, 11:00 A.M. ET. 2 Minute Read, By Art Fletcher: Englebrook Independent News,
CLARKSBURG, W.VA.- Last week, a 40-year-old Monongalia County, West Virginia, woman learned she would be in her mid-fifties when she finally gets out of federal prison after she was sentenced to nearly a decade-and-a-half for operating a cocaine trafficking network within the Northern District of West Virginia.
On Thursday, December 12, 2024, Anette Sanabtia-Velez, 40, of Morgantown and Granville, West Virginia, appeared in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of West Virginia and was sentenced by Chief U.S. District Court Judge Thomas S. Kleeh to 168 months in federal prison, to be followed by three years of supervised release for her guilty plea to Possession with Intent to Distribute Cocaine.
According To The U.S. Attorney’s Office
According to Assistant U.S. Attorney Zelda Wesley and the charging document filed with the district court, Sanabria-Velez was trafficking quantities of cocaine throughout Monongalia County, West Virginia, area.
During an investigation into Sanabria-Velez’s drug trafficking activities, federal agents from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration learned that, at times, Sanabria-Velez would distribute the cocaine from her home. Further investigation revealed that she would travel to Puerto Rico to order the illicit narcotic that would then be shipped to various locations in West Virginia and Maryland to be repackaged and distributed.
At the culmination of the investigation, federal agents obtained and executed court-authorized search warrants on Sanabria-Velez’s residences and her car, which resulted in federal agents locating and seizing over four kilograms of cocaine.
U.S. Attorney William J. Ihlenfeld, II commended the investigative work of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration for the successful prosecution of Sanabria-Velez.
