Oct 25, 2012 2 min read

The leader of a drug ring that brought hundreds of thousands of pain pills to the Ohio Valley was sentenced Monday in federal court in Wheeling, W.Va., to more than 21 years in prison. David L. Kidd II, 43, of Martins Ferry, Ohio, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Frederick P. Stamp Jr. to 262 months of imprisonment to be followed by three years of supervised release, U.S. Attorney William J. Ihlenfeld II announced. Kidd pleaded guilty May 24 to one count of conspiracy to distribute oxycodone and cocaine, one count of conspiracy to launder monetary instruments and one count of contempt of court. Kidd admitted that he was involved in the distribution of up to 150,000 oxycodone pills that were obtained by him and his group via doctor shopping at pain clinics in Florida and South Carolina. As part of his plea, Kidd agreed to forfeit $66,718, a gun, two vehicles and three computers. The contempt of court charge was filed as a result of Kidd leaving the court’s jurisdiction and going to New Jersey and then to Oklahoma, where he was captured after a high-speed chase last October. Kidd was remanded to the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service pending designation to a federal prison.