Attorney General DeWine Announces 22 Year Sentence in Drug Trafficking Case

Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine announced today that an Ohio man will spend more than two decades in prison for trafficking drugs in northwest Ohio.

Pursuant to a plea agreement, Charles V. Richardson, 35, pleaded no contest today to two charges of Trafficking in Cocaine in an amount equal to or exceeding 100 grams.

Immediately following the plea, Seneca County Common Pleas Court Judge Michael P. Kelbley sentenced Richardson to a term of 22 years in prison. Due to the amount of drugs trafficked, each charge carried a mandatory 11-year sentence.

"Drug traffickers like this defendant deserve to spend two decades in prison," said Attorney General DeWine. "This man did nothing but feed the addiction that so many people struggle with in this state."

The case was investigated by officers with the Seneca County Drug Task Force-METRICH Enforcement Unit and prosecuted by the Attorney General's Special Prosecutions Section.

According to investigators, Richardson was part of a drug distribution ring bringing cocaine from Toledo to Seneca County. They said Richardson primarily sold the drugs in Tiffin and Fostoria in Seneca County and in Findlay in Hancock County.

"The Ohio Attorney Generals Office, BCI Narcotics Division, and DEA Toledo Division were instrumental to the success of this investigation," said Detective Charles W. Boyer, unit coordinator of the Seneca County Drug Task Force.

Richardson was arrested after selling the drugs to a confidential informant earlier this year.

In an effort to evaluate drug abuse across the state, Attorney General DeWine announced yesterday plans to hold a series of Drug Abuse Community Forums to develop new strategies to prevent addiction.

Press release from Attorney General DeWine’s office dated October 25, 2013.