Greenfield man sentenced to 3 years in prison for trafficking meth
Allen West. (Highland County Sheriff's Office mugshot)
A Greenfield man was sentenced to prison Wednesday after pleading guilty to a first-degree felony drug trafficking charge.
As previously reported, Allen R. West, 45, was indicted by a Highland County grand jury in February and charged with one count of aggravated possession of methamphetamine, a first-degree felony; one count of aggravated trafficking in methamphetamine, a first-degree felony; one count of tampering with evidence, a third-degree felony; and a forfeiture specification.
West pleaded guilty March 18 to the aggravated trafficking charge and the forfeiture specification.
According to a bill of particulars, on or about Dec. 2, a patrolman with the Greenfield Police Department made a traffic stop on West’s vehicle, while another officer and K9 later arrived on scene. The K9 alerted on the vehicle, after which the officers conducted a search of the vehicle.
It is alleged that officers located “a baggie with crystalline substance torn open on the passenger floorboard,” “loose crystalline substance on the passenger floorboard, front passenger seat and inside the center console cupholder;” and a “crystalline substance inside” a cup in the cupholder.
A subsequent investigation of West’s phone allegedly led to the discovery of “multiple conversations that involved selling drugs” and “a video … that showed West actively making methamphetamine.”
Analysis by the Bureau of Criminal Investigation and Investigation confirmed that all of the substances found were meth, with weights including a 3.62-gram bag, a .10-gram bag, a .25-gram amount inside a “vehicle-console insert” and a 158.34-gram amount inside a cup.
Subject to forfeiture was a 2018 Chevrolet Silverado “due to its instrumentality in the commission or facilitation of the offense,” as prosecutors alleged in the bill of particulars that West “transported methamphetamine in the truck.”
After accepting West’s guilty plea, Highland County Common Pleas Court Judge Rocky Coss sentenced West to a mandatory three years in prison. Under the Reagan Tokes Law, West could serve up to four and a half years. He had eight days of jail time credit. The truck listed in the indictment was ordered forfeited to the Greenfield Police Department.