Frankfort resident receives 8-year prison term for drug trafficking

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WASHINGTON C.H. — Jasmine R. Lee was sentenced to eight years in prison Monday for trafficking cocaine and fentanyl across southern Ohio to West Virginia.

The 25-year-old was arrested in 2016 after a confidential informant notified law enforcement officers with the U.S. 23 Major Crime Task Force that Lee was transporting a quarter-kilo of narcotics in her car. As a part of the jointly-recommended plea negotiation reached in court Monday, Lee’s car, a 2007 Toyota Camry, will be forfeited to the state of Ohio. Two handguns located in Lee’s car were additionally specified as forfeitures to the state in the indictment.

Lee appeared in the Fayette County Court of Common Pleas with her public defense attorney, Susan Wollscheid, on a multi-count indictment on charges that carried a maximum combined penalty of 23 years in the Ohio Reformatory for Women. Lee was ordered to serve eight years in the reformatory after pleading guilty to trafficking in cocaine, a first-degree felony, trafficking in drugs (fentanyl), and trafficking in drugs, a fifth-degree felony.

The eight ounces of narcotics located in a cooler in Lee’s vehicle Nov. 29, 2016 included 127 grams of cocaine, 116 grams of fentanyl, and, in an amount less than bulk, bupenrphrin, an opioid narcotic.

Lee, of Frankfort, was arrested after her car was stopped on U.S. 35.

A written statement from the confidential informant said that Lee and three other people filled individual capsules with the bulk drugs while at the Ramada Inn in Xenia Nov. 29, 2016, and packed the drugs into the cooler and left for West Virginia. Reports said problems with a vehicle forced Lee and the other companions to turn around and visit a mechanic in Greenfield.

On Nov. 30, reports state that a detective working with the Ross County Sheriff’s Office near Greenfield notified the Fayette County Sheriff’s Office that the vehicle would be traveling from Greenfield to U.S. 35 west back to Xenia. The Fayette County Sheriff’s Office initiated a traffic stop on Lee’s Camry near the Greene County line, and a K-9 performed a sniff and responded positively for the presence of suspected narcotics.

Reports said the U.S. 23 Major Crimes Task Force agents assisting in this investigation included detectives from the Fayette, Pickaway, Pike and Ross county sheriff’s offices. Additional items listed as evidence in the reports from a search of the Toyota included a plastic bag, Suboxone strips, 110 pills, two bottles containing green vegetation, a bag with syringes, sandwich bags, zip-lock bags, three scales, three bags of empty gel caps, Lee’s driver’s license, a hotel card, and three cell phones.

Judge Steven Beathard told Lee during Monday’s court hearing that following her release from the Ohio Reformatory for Women, she will be supervised with five years of mandatory post-release control. Mandatory fines in the case were suspended.

Lee made no comment on her behalf when asked by the judge if she had anything to say.

Lee
http://www.wnewsj.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/22/2017/11/web1_Lee.jpgLee

By Ashley Bunton

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Reach Ashley at (740) 313-0355 or connect on Twitter by searching Twitter.com for @ashbunton

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