Justin Dale Graves

Introduction

Justin Dale Graves is a 44-year-old from St. Albans, West Virginia whose home doubled as a distribution point for methamphetamine at scale. When law enforcement executed a search warrant at his residence on October 30, 2024, they seized more than 3.3 kilograms of methamphetamine, a loaded Hi-Point C-9 and a loaded Glock 19, 37.69 grams of fentanyl, cocaine, heroin, scales, a drug ledger, ammunition and cash. On November 5, 2026, U.S. District Judge Irene C. Berger sentenced Graves to nine years in federal prison, followed by five years of supervised release, for possession with intent to distribute half a kilogram or more of methamphetamine and possessing a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime.

Background Information

The raid was preceded by a controlled purchase. As part of his guilty plea, Graves admitted that he sold approximately 27.21 grams of methamphetamine to a confidential informant in exchange for $225 in St. Albans on October 29, 2024 — the day before the search warrant was executed at his residence. The buys and the seizure together formed the evidentiary spine of the federal case: a seller mid-operation, with the stock, the weapons, the records and the cash all in one place. The case was investigated with the St. Albans Police Department, whose work United States Attorney Moore Capito commended in announcing the sentence, and prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney JC MacCallum in the Southern District of West Virginia.

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation

Convicted and sentenced. Justin Dale Graves pleaded guilty to methamphetamine distribution and firearm-in-furtherance counts and was sentenced to nine years in federal prison.

The October 30, 2024 search of Graves’s St. Albans residence produced the inventory the sentencing announcement itemizes: over 3.3 kilograms of methamphetamine; a loaded Hi-Point model C-9 9mm pistol and a loaded Glock model 19 9mm pistol; 37.69 grams of fentanyl; 17.17 grams of cocaine; 2.29 grams of heroin; two digital scales; various rounds of live ammunition; a drug ledger; and $1,190 in cash. The methamphetamine quantity alone placed the case in the half-kilogram-and-over tier that carries heightened federal exposure.

Graves’s plea admissions closed the loop on intent. He admitted he possessed the seized methamphetamine and intended to distribute it, and that he possessed the two loaded firearms to protect himself, his drugs, and his drug proceeds — the admission that sustains the firearm-in-furtherance count, which treats a gun kept to guard a drug business as part of the trafficking offense itself. Combined with the informant sale the day before the raid, the case documented an active dealer rather than mere possession.

The sentence — nine years, plus five years of supervised release — was imposed on November 5, 2026, by Judge Berger, the same judge who two years earlier handled the warrant. The case is documented as Case No. 2:26-cr-19 in the Southern District of West Virginia, prosecuted under the Justice Department’s Operation Take Back America and Project Safe Neighborhoods initiatives.

Public Reaction and Consequences

The announcement came from U.S. Attorney Moore Capito’s office, with the St. Albans Police Department credited as the investigative agency — a local department’s warrant ripening into a federal sentence measured in kilograms. The documented consequences: a guilty plea on the distribution count and the firearm count, nine years in federal custody where parole does not exist, and five years of supervised release after. The drug ledger seized at the house became part of the record; the $1,190 found alongside it and the two loaded pistols stood as the physical proof of the distribution-and-protection posture Graves admitted. The fentanyl, cocaine and heroin in the same home, though smaller in quantity, rounded out the inventory that made the residence a distribution point rather than a user’s stash.

Current Status

Graves is a sentenced federal inmate serving nine years following his guilty plea, with supervised release to run five years after custody. Judge Berger imposed the term on November 5, 2026. The announcement does not report an appeal, additional defendants, or any forfeiture action; it documents the plea, the inventory, the informant sale, and the sentence. At 44, Graves will be in his early fifties at release — with the conviction standing as a permanent federal record for a man whose house yielded one of the larger methamphetamine seizures documented in the district’s recent announcements.

Impact on Their Career/Life

Graves’s case is a single-home portrait of the meth trade at distribution scale: kilogram-plus inventory, two loaded weapons, fentanyl and heroin alongside, a ledger of transactions, and an informant buy the day before the walls came in. The nine-year sentence removes a 44-year-old from St. Albans for most of a decade, with the firearm-in-furtherance conviction guaranteeing the weapons part of the record follows him. For St. Albans, the case documented a city police department’s work moving from a street-level $225 buy to a federal sentence on 3.3 kilograms. For Graves, the inventory he kept at home became the count sheet that sent him to prison — each item on the seizure list mapped directly to a plea admission and a year of consequence.

Sources

• U.S. Attorney’s Office, Southern District of West Virginia, “Kanawha County Man Sentenced to Prison for Federal Drug and Gun Crimes,” November 2026. source