Antonio Lamar Jeffries, 36, of St. Albans, was sentenced to 17 years and six months in prison followed by 10 years of supervised release for his involvement in a methamphetamine trafficking conspiracy. According to court records, Jeffries played a significant role in a drug trafficking organization operating in the Charleston area between November 2022 and March 22, 2023.
Court documents show that Jeffries arranged for a co-conspirator to travel to Bluefield, West Virginia, on February 4, 2023, to obtain methamphetamine from his supplier. He coordinated the meeting using a cell phone and provided money for the transaction. The exchange took place at Mercer Mall in Bluefield. Law enforcement stopped the co-conspirator’s vehicle on her return trip and seized approximately 3.1 kilograms of methamphetamine from her car. Jeffries admitted he planned to distribute part of this methamphetamine and allow the co-conspirator to keep some.
United States Attorney Moore Capito stated: “This defendant chose to profit from destroying lives. Today, that ends. Thanks to the relentless work of law enforcement, 70 pounds of lethal drugs will never reach our families. And let me be clear: this is only the beginning. We will keep pushing forward, we will dismantle these networks, and we will seek the harshest sentences the law allows for those who target our community.”
Jeffries has two prior convictions for drug offenses and was serving supervised release after being convicted for possession with intent to distribute cocaine base in July 2011 in United States District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia. On August 20, 2025, he received an additional sentence of two years and six months for violating terms of supervised release; this sentence runs consecutively with his current sentence for a total incarceration period of twenty years.
He is one of thirty-one individuals convicted as part of Operation Smoke and Mirrors—a large-scale investigation resulting in what authorities describe as West Virginia’s largest-ever seizure of methamphetamine. The operation led law enforcement agencies to confiscate over four hundred pounds of methamphetamine along with forty pounds of cocaine, three pounds of fentanyl, nineteen firearms, and $935,000 in cash.
Capito recognized several agencies involved in the investigation including the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), U.S. Department of Homeland Security-Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco Firearms and Explosives (ATF), U.S. Postal Inspection Service as well as multiple state and local police departments such as MDENT—the Metropolitan Drug Enforcement Network Team—and sheriff’s offices across several counties.
The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Jeremy B. Wolfe before United States District Judge Thomas E. Johnston.
Operation Smoke and Mirrors was conducted under the Department of Justice’s Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF) program which aims to disrupt major drug trafficking organizations through collaboration among federal agencies alongside state and local law enforcement partners.
More information about related court documents can be found by searching Case No. 2:23-cr-31 on PACERLinks to other government and non-government sites will typically appear with the “external link” icon to indicate that you are leaving the Department of Justice website when you click the link..
