FAYETTEVILLE, W.Va. (AP) — A West Virginia woman was sentenced to decades in prison this week for her role as a meth and fentanyl drug dealer in the southern part of the state, officials said.
Heather L. Hewitt, 42, led a drug trafficking ring in Fayette County, local prosecutor Anthony Ciliberti, Jr. said in a statement Wednesday.
A judge sentenced her on Tuesday to more than 60 years in prison for felony drug trafficking and conspiracy convictions, the statement said. Hewitt will serve at least 21 years before being parole eligible. She was also fined $25,000.
The Central Regional Drug and Violent Crime Task Force used a confidential informant to buy methamphetamine and fentanyl from her operation starting in August 2021.
Law enforcement seized more than $250,000 from her organization after she was arrested in February 2022, the prosecutor’s statement said. She had more than a pound of fentanyl, two pounds of methamphetamine, approximately three ounces of cocaine, sets of digital scales and five guns. Ledgers found in her home documented sales of the drugs.
Hewitt was personally involved in transporting those types of drugs into West Virginia from out of state, officials said.
West Virginia has the highest rate of opioid overdoses in the U.S. In Fayette County, with a population of just 40,000, around 40 people died of drug overdoses during the 12 month-ending period ending in September 2022, according to provisional data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
