Fentanyl and Methamphetamine Dealers Sentenced

MARTINSBURG, WEST VIRGINIA - Three people have been sentenced to federal prison for selling fentanyl and methamphetamine in the Eastern Panhandle of West Virginia, announced U.S. Attorney Matthew L. Harvey.

Demarkco Canty, 23, of Parkville, Maryland was sentenced to 115 months in prison for working with others to sell approximately 200,000 lethal doses of fentanyl. Canty acted as the delivery man, delivering fentanyl and heroin for the leader of the drug trafficking organization, Sean Jarred Davis of Baltimore, to dealers in Hampshire and Mineral Counties in West Virginia. The organization was selling hundreds of grams of purple fentanyl across the region. Davis was sentenced to 240 months in prison in December 2024. The other 20 defendants in the case were convicted and were sentenced to a combined 41 years in prison.

In a separate case, James Shanholtz, 38, of Springfield, West Virginia, was sentenced to 92 months and Gregory Brian Harrison, 54, of Romney, West Virginia, was sentenced to 24 months. Both men were working together with others to sell methamphetamine in Hampshire County.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Lara Omps-Botteicher prosecuted the cases on behalf of the government.

Investigative agencies include the Potomac Highlands Drug Task Force, a HIDTA-funded initiative; the Federal Bureau of Investigation; the Drug Enforcement Administration; the West Virginia State Police; the Mineral County Sheriff's Office; the Hampshire County Sheriff's Office; the Hardy County Sheriff's Office; the Grant County Sheriff's Office; and the Keyser Police Department.

Fentanyl has been designated by President Donald Trump as a weapon of mass destruction due to its extreme lethality which poses a grave threat to public safety, even in trace amounts. This case is part of Operation Take Back America, a nationwide initiative that marshals the full resources of the Department of Justice to achieve the total elimination of cartels and transnational criminal organizations (TCOs), protect our communities from the perpetrators of violent crime, and repel the invasion of illegal immigration.

U.S. District Judge Gina M. Groh presided.