The final defendant in a Dayton freight drug case pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Dayton on Friday, November 13, closing the prosecution of four men indicted in a scheme built around a freight shipment holding 119 kilograms of cocaine and fentanyl, 170 pounds of methamphetamine and 80 pounds of marijuana, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Ohio announced.
Jason Heath, 40, of Dayton, pleaded guilty Friday to conspiring to possess with intent to distribute 400 grams or more of fentanyl, 500 grams or more of methamphetamine and 500 grams or more of cocaine, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. The narcotics conspiracy is punishable by at least 10 years and up to life in prison.
A federal grand jury indicted four men in February: Heath; Roderic Searcy, 60, of Los Angeles; Craig Worthen, 40, of Los Angeles; and Mark Lane, 33, of Cincinnati, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said. With Heath’s plea, all four defendants stand convicted in the case.
According to court documents cited by the U.S. Attorney’s Office, DEA agents on February 2 executed a federal search warrant on a freight package delivered to a distribution center in Dayton and discovered and seized the large quantity of suspected controlled substances inside it.
The next day, February 3, Lane and Searcy drove a white Mercedes van to the distribution center to retrieve the shipment, took possession of the freight and loaded two pallets into the van before leaving, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office. Heath and Worthen followed the van in a Honda Civic to an address in Dayton.
There, the plan collapsed. According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, the defendants discovered the suspected controlled substances had been removed when they started to unwrap the package inside the van, and all four immediately tried to leave the residence. They did not get away: all four were stopped and arrested by federal agents.
Worthen was sentenced in September to 11 years in prison, and the other three defendants await sentencing, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said. U.S. Attorney Dominick S. Gerace II and Joseph O. Dixon, special agent in charge of the DEA’s Detroit division, announced Heath’s guilty plea, which was offered before U.S. Magistrate Judge Peter B. Silvain Jr.; Assistant U.S. Attorney Elizabeth A. McCormick is representing the United States in the case.
Photo: Blervis, CC BY