HUNTINGTON, WV—A woman who distributed heroin from her Huntington apartment pleaded guilty today to a federal drug charge, announced U.S. Attorney Booth Goodwin. Patricia Lynn Petrie, 51, entered a guilty plea in federal court in Huntington to maintaining a residence for the purpose of distributing heroin.

In August of 2012, agents with the Huntington FBI Drug Task Force observed Petrie on multiple occasions engaging in what appeared to be drug deals near her apartment at 1112 9th Street, Apartment 4 in Huntington. Agents stopped Petrie outside her apartment on August 23, 2012 and recovered a small quantity of heroin. Agents subsequently searched her apartment and recovered 33 individually wrapped bags of heroin. Petrie admitted as part of her plea that she intended to distribute the heroin seized by the task force agents.

Petrie faces up to 20 years in federal prison, and is scheduled to be sentenced on August 17, 2015.

The Huntington FBI Drug Task Force and Huntington Police Department conducted the investigation. Assistant United States Attorney Joseph F. Adams is in charge of the prosecution.

This case is being prosecuted as part of an ongoing effort led by the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of West Virginia to combat the illicit sale and misuse of prescription drugs and heroin. The U.S. Attorney’s Office, joined by federal, state and local law enforcement agencies, is committed to aggressively pursuing and shutting down illegal pill trafficking, eliminating open air drug markets, and curtailing the spread of opiate painkillers and heroin in communities across the Southern District.