WASHINGTON C.H. — The subject of a multi-agency drug trafficking investigation was sentenced to 20 years in prison Tuesday by Fayette County Common Pleas Court Judge Steven Beathard.
Last Thursday, Anthony B. Adkins was found guilty by a jury of 15 cocaine-related felony charges during his two-day trial. On Tuesday, Adkins received 11 years of mandatory prison time on a “major drug offense” cocaine trafficking charge, five years mandatory prison time on first-degree felony cocaine trafficking, and four years of mandatory prison time on a charge of engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity.
These sentences are to be served consecutively for a total prison term of 20 years. On four fifth-degree felony trafficking charges and one fourth-degree felony trafficking charge, Adkins was sentenced to 12 months on each, but those sentences are concurrent with the mandatory sentences, according to Fayette County Prosecutor Jess Weade.
According to Fayette County Sheriff Vernon Stanforth, his detectives and US 23 Major Crimes Task Force agents started an investigation following complaints of suspected drug trafficking with Adkins, 40, as the suspect. Detectives and task force agents conducted multiple undercover drug sale transactions with Adkins over a six-month period.
On June 29, sheriff’s detectives saw Adkins returning from the Dayton area in the black Lincoln SUV, according to Stanforth. A traffic stop attempt was made on State Route 72 just south of Interstate 71 in Clinton County, however, Adkins did not pull over and led deputies on a chase that concluded on Gallimore Road near State Route 72.
Adkins’s vehicle went off the roadway and drove through a field to evade law enforcement. Detectives pursuing the vehicle could see Adkins discarding objects out of the driver’s window of the vehicle before coming to a stop and being secured by deputies, according to Stanforth.
Once Adkins was in custody, detectives reportedly located a bag containing a white powdery substance on his person, and also recovered two additional bags containing a white powdery substance in the field where he was seen discarding them out of the vehicle window before capture. The substances inside the baggies were presumptively identified as cocaine, said Stanforth.
Later in the evening on June 29, detectives executed a search warrant at Adkins’s home, 9159 Allen Road Northwest near the Village of Octa. During the search, detectives found numerous firearms, a large quantity of substances presumptively identified as methamphetamine, cocaine, crack cocaine, marijuana, and an ATV that was reported stolen.
Agencies assisting the sheriff’s office in this investigation include the US 23 Major Crimes Task Force, Ross County Sheriff’s Office, Pickaway County Sheriff’s Office, Madison County Sheriff’s Office, Clinton County Sheriff’s Office, London Police Department, and the Ohio State Highway Patrol.
