BY ROGER SMITH
MOUNTAIN CITIZEN
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. — A Martin County, Kentucky, man already serving a state prison sentence pleaded guilty in federal court to buying fentanyl in Huntington with the intent to sell it.
Kody D. Harless, 27, of Tomahawk, entered the plea Nov. 24.
According to court records, Harless received approximately 4.75 grams of fentanyl from an individual in Huntington on Aug. 15, 2023. A law enforcement officer stopped the vehicle he was riding in shortly after the transaction and seized the drugs.
Harless admitted he had arranged the purchase beforehand and intended to distribute some of the fentanyl.
He also acknowledged participating in a broader conspiracy to receive fentanyl and methamphetamine in Southern West Virginia for redistribution.
Harless admitted that from at least July 2023 through November 2023, he regularly obtained methamphetamine and fentanyl from individuals in Huntington and transported the drugs to Kentucky, where he sold them.
He is scheduled for sentencing March 2, 2026. He faces up to 20 years in prison, at least three years of supervised release and a fine of up to $1 million.
Harless is one of 27 defendants indicted in a federal investigation into a drug trafficking organization responsible for distributing large amounts of methamphetamine and fentanyl in the Huntington area, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said. Twenty-three defendants have pleaded guilty in the main indictment. Charges against the remaining defendants are pending.
Harless has a long history of drug-related arrests dating back nearly a decade. His first arrest came in 2017, when he was 18 and charged with methamphetamine, marijuana and alcohol offenses in Martin County. In May 2020, he went to jail for possession of meth, trafficking a controlled substance within 1,000 feet of a school and selling a controlled substance to a minor.
In July 2020, he pleaded guilty to fleeing police and possession of a controlled substance. The court granted him a one-year diversion and ordered him to complete inpatient treatment for substance abuse. In September 2020, a Martin County grand jury indicted him on drug trafficking charges.
Harless pleaded guilty to first-degree trafficking of heroin in May 2021 and received a three-year sentence. The court put him on supervised parole or probation for those charges in December 2021.
In June 2022, law enforcement arrested Harless again, this time for trafficking marijuana. He pleaded guilty to a first-degree meth-related charge in September 2022.
In November 2022, police arrested Harless during a traffic stop in Colegrove, Ohio. Law enforcement said they found an ounce of methamphetamine, multiple baggies of suspected fentanyl, digital scales and other drug paraphernalia.
The court in Martin County revoked his probation in February 2023, and and ordered him to serve 90 days of in-home incarceration.
Police arrested Harless again in April 2023 on charges of heroin possession, importing carfentanil, fentanyl or fentanyl derivatives, and possessing a prescription controlled substance not in its proper container. A grand jury in Martin County indicted him on those charges in July 2023.
Harless went to jail again in November 2023 in Johnson County. His charges included first-degree possession of a controlled substance (methamphetamine), possession of marijuana, third-degree possession of a controlled substance (drug unspecified) and first-degree possession of a controlled substance (opiates) in Johnson County.
In December 2023, he received a prison sentence for those charges and began serving a five-year term at the Lee Adjustment Center.