MARTINSBURG — A federal judge recently sentenced a Maryland man to prison for trafficking heroin in the state’s eastern Panhandle, the product of a partnership between West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey and U.S. Attorney Bill Powell.
Steven Robinson, of Baltimore, received a 12-year prison sentence.
In January, Robinson pleaded guilty to conspiring with others to distribute more than one kilogram of heroin with a street value of more than $300,000. The conspiracy occurred from August 2015 to December 2016 in Berkeley and Jefferson counties, among other locations.
“We cannot allow more opioids into our communities,” Morrisey said in a press release. “Those who bring drugs from out of state to poison West Virginians must face the consequences.”
The partnership, announced in December 2015, involves two lawyers from the Attorney General’s Office serving as special assistant U.S. attorneys. To date, the work of those attorneys has led to or assisted in the government securing 12 convictions.
West Virginia Assistant Attorney General Elizabeth Grant assisted in the government’s prosecution in her dual role as a special assistant U.S. attorney. Assistant U.S. Attorney Anna Z. Krasinski also prosecuted the case.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Eastern Panhandle Drug & Violent Crimes Task Force, a HIDTA-funded initiative, investigated.
Chief U.S. District Judge Gina M. Groh presided.