A 67-year-old Hampton man admitted to leading a family-run heroin trafficking conspiracy which distributed large quantities of heroin in Virginia.
William Arthur Joe pleaded guilty Wednesday to continuing criminal enterprise. He faces a mandatory 20 years in prison when sentenced on Sept. 24.
According to court documents, Joe — aka Pops, aka Unc, aka Rudy K — was the leader of a large heroin trafficking organization on the Peninsula.
The organization got heroin from sources in New York and New Jersey and would then sell it in the Hampton Roads area. As head of the organization, Joe employed multiple family members and acquaintances to distribute the heroin, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia wrote in a news release.
“Mr. Joe led a large-scale heroin trafficking conspiracy for many years in Hampton Roads,” said G. Zachary Terwilliger, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District.
Federal prosecutors said Joe’s organization was the focus of a two-year investigation which included law enforcement surveillance and multiple court-authorized wire taps.
The organization operated from at least 2014 until Joe’s arrest in June 2017, and was responsible for distributing more than three kilos of heroin.
