Owner facilitated the trafficking scheme by maintaining Elite Customs as a central point of operations for the conspiracy and cultivated illicit business relationships
Newport News, Va.—A federal jury convicted a Hampton, Va., man last week of conspiring to distribute and possess with the intent to distribute fentanyl and marijuana.
According to court records and evidence presented at trial, from approximately September 2019, until his arrest in April 2022, Orlando Roosevelt Adkins, 45, operated and managed Elite Customs, an automotive repair and custom auto body shop in Hampton.
During this time, this property was used as a drug-involved premises for a drug trafficking conspiracy. Within this conspiracy, the co-conspirators, including Adkins, distributed and possessed quantities of fentanyl and marijuana. The conspirators would purchase and receive drugs from suppliers in Mexico, Texas, California, and North Carolina, and arrange for the drugs to be transported to Virginia using rental vehicles, couriers, postal services, semi-trailers, trucks, and recreational vehicles.
According to witnesses, Adkins facilitated the trafficking scheme by maintaining Elite Customs as a central point of operations for the conspiracy and cultivated illicit business relationships among conspirators.
On June 26, Adkins pleaded guilty to charges of distribution of marijuana, maintaining a drug-involved premises, and two counts of using a communication facility in furtherance of drug trafficking, but denied involvement in any drug trafficking conspiracy. Adkins was tried last week on the remaining conspiracy charge, during which the federal jury found that Adkins was, in fact, part of a drug conspiracy that involved fentanyl and marijuana.
Adkins was convicted of conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute fentanyl and marijuana and faces a mandatory minimum of 5 years in prison when sentenced on Nov. 28. Actual sentences for federal crimes are typically less than the maximum penalties. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after taking into account the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.
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