Ohio man sentenced for drug conspiracy

 WHEELING, WEST VIRGINIA – Ryan Thomas Savage, of Wintersville, Ohio, was sentenced today to 37 months of incarceration for his role in a cocaine, crack cocaine, heroin, and fentanyl distribution operation, U.S. Attorney Bill Powell announced.
 
Savage, age 37, pled guilty to one count of “Conspiracy to Distribute Cocaine Hydrochloride, Cocaine Base, Heroin, and Fentanyl” in December 2019. Savage admitted to working with others to distribute cocaine, crack cocaine, heroin and fentanyl in Hancock County and elsewhere from February 2018 to August 2019.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Danae DeMasi-Lemon and Robert H. McWilliams, Jr. prosecuted the case on behalf of the government. The Drug Enforcement Administration; the Hancock-Brooke-Weirton Drug & Violent Crimes Task Force, a HIDTA-funded initiative; the West Virginia State Police; the Marshall County Drug & Violent Crimes task Force, a HIDTA-funded initiative; The Ohio Valley Drug & Violent Crimes task Force, a HIDTA-funded initiative; the Jefferson County, Ohio, Drug & Violent Crimes Task Force; the Hancock County Sheriff’s Office; the Brooke County Sheriff’s Office; the Weirton Police Department; and the West Virginia Division of Natural Resources Police investigated. 

The investigation was funded by the federal Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force Program (OCDETF). OCDETF was established in 1982 to conduct comprehensive, multilevel attacks on major drug trafficking and money laundering organizations and is the keystone of the Department of Justice’s drug reduction strategy.  Today, OCDETF combines the resources and expertise of its member federal agencies in cooperation with state and local law enforcement.  The principal mission of the OCDETF program is to identify, disrupt, and dismantle the most serious drug trafficking organizations, transnational criminal organizations, and money laundering organizations that present a significant threat to the public safety, economic, or national security of the United States.

U.S. District Judge John Preston Bailey presided.