26 people charged in Ohio Valley drug trafficking investigation | News, Sports, Jobs

|Photo by Emma Delk| U.S. Attorney William Ihlenfeld announced the charges at a press conference at the Federal Building and U.S. Courthouse. Law enforcement officials from several jurisdictions involved in the investigation were present at the conference, including the Wheeling Police Department.

A federal grand jury has indicted 26 people from Nevada, Ohio and West Virginia on seven counts of trafficking in fentanyl, cocaine base and methamphetamine.

Quavonte Pugh, 28, of Wheeling, and 11 others were named in the 16-count indictment accusing them of operating a drug trafficking operation that stretched from Las Vegas, Nevada, to the Ohio Valley.

The charges were the result of an extensive investigation that included five federal search warrants executed at locations in West Virginia and Ohio on March 29. During the searches, officers seized controlled substances, firearms and cash from the homes of those involved in the plot.

Pugh, also known as “Q,” “Q Man” and “Brother,” is accused of being at the center of the drug trafficking scheme. According to U.S. Attorney William Ihlenfeld, Pugh allegedly received shipments of pills from Las Vegas and then sent money back through Walmart’s online money transfer system to pay for the drugs.

“This discovery led to further investigations into who he was delivering to in this area,” Ihlenfeld said Tuesday, adding that the investigation began over a year ago. “It took a while before we finally found out who he was delivering to and who was working with whom. After that, it took several months to find out what we have today.”

The indictment also includes Dalen Cage, 30, of Las Vegas; James Galloway, 28, of Bellaire, Ohio; James Kidder, 47, of Martins Ferry, Ohio; Brady McKinley, 45, of Adena, Ohio; Maria Cunningham, 46, Quamya Pugh, 25, Steven Aldridge, 26, Caviezz Cunningham, 29, Daryl Smith, 50, Tyrique Anthony Davis, 28 and Matthew Clemont, 31, all of Wheeling.

The people named in the indictment are said to have been involved in the operation to varying degrees. According to Ihlenfeld, Cage was allegedly the drug supplier for Pugh, while others were involved in the further distribution of the drugs in the Ohio Valley.

Ihlenfeld added that some of the defendants in the indictment are “regular customers” of the criminal justice system.

“This indictment names some individuals with long criminal histories, and others who have caused a lot of damage in the Ohio Valley over the years,” Ihlenfeld noted. “This indictment names some violent criminals who have been regularly involved in drug trafficking. So we’re targeting these individuals who simply continue to engage in criminal activity.”

After the defendants are arraigned, U.S. Magistrate Judge James Mazzone will set dates for evidentiary hearings, preliminary hearings and trials for the defendants. Ihlenfeld noted that the defendants have the opportunity to settle the case through a plea agreement before trial.

“There are some people listed in this indictment who have a significant criminal history that (if convicted) will get them a longer sentence than people with very little criminal history,” Ihlenfeld explained. “We also have different age groups (in the indictment), so the younger people generally don’t have the same criminal history as the older people. Ultimately, the judge will look at the criminal history and drug weight and then make a decision along with other factors.”

To track down the individuals named in the indictment, an Ohio Valley Drug Task Force, including members of the Wheeling Police Department, Ohio County Sheriff’s Office, West Virginia State Police and Drug Enforcement Agency, worked together to provide logistical surveillance and execute the five search warrants.

“The Ohio Valley Drug Task Force deserves the lion’s share of the credit for this investigation, for distributing the drug supply in the region and for dismantling the organization,” noted Ihlenfeld, who also pointed to other agencies that assisted in the case, including the Brooke, Hancock, Marshall and Belmont counties’ sheriff’s offices and the Weirton and Moundsville police departments.

“The great thing about law enforcement here in the region is the cooperative spirit that prevails,” Ihlenfeld said. “I’ve been on the task force many times and have seen that all agencies were there to help when they needed to go up the river to Hancock County or across the river to Jefferson County. Because of that cooperative spirit, we were able to pursue challenging targets and even more challenging organizations.”

In the Pugh case, this cross-county collaboration enabled the Task Force to track the shipping of invoices from Las Vegas to Wheeling and the movement of money from Wheeling to Las Vegas through Walmart’s peer-to-peer cash system.

The Task Force also tracked the movement of cocaine from the southwest border of the United States and the movement of money from the Ohio Valley to Texas to pay for cocaine purchases.

“Members of this organization traveled extensively by car up and down the Ohio River to distribute cocaine to communities in Ohio and West Virginia,” added Ihlenfeld, who noted that the organization was allegedly one of the region’s major suppliers of cocaine.

Shawn Schweretfeger, Wheeling police chief and a member of the Ohio Valley Drug Task Force, said a “large quantity of narcotics and firearms” were seized in the five search warrants executed on March 29.

The impact of executing the search warrants and stopping drug trafficking at its source is already being felt in Wheeling, Schwertfeger added, explaining that overdoses reported in the city during the first five months of 2024 were “significantly down compared to last year.”

“I’m pretty sure we’ll see a 40 to 50 percent reduction in overdoses,” Schwertfeger said. “If there are 26 indictments and the drugs mentioned in this case are coming here from Mexico and the West, you’ll see a reduction once you eliminate that source.”

Schwertfeger stressed that the prosecution will not only reduce the incidence of overdoses and addiction in the valley, but will also make the area safer overall.

“We’re not just talking about overdoses here, because there is violence associated with drug trafficking organizations,” Schwertfeger said. “We have recovered some firearms that potentially could have been used or were used. We are still investigating that and examining those firearms with our friends and partners at the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco & Firearms, but we are always trying to curb this type of criminal activity in our communities.”

Ihlenfeld added that many of the names named in the indictment have a long criminal history and that preventing them from committing further crimes in the area would also make the community safer.

“This indictment does not mean that drug problems are going away. That’s why I think it’s always important to talk about prevention and treatment and that we need to get better at that together as a society,” Ihlenfeld added. “I’m optimistic that we’ll find some solutions that will help support enforcement.”

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