NEWPORT NEWS, Va. — Deton Dodson, 46, of Norfolk was sentenced Thursday for his involvement in a drug trafficking operation that dealt in the larger Tidewater region.
Dodson was charged with distribution of cocaine and given two years and nine months in prison. Court documents indicate the group was supplied with kilograms of cocaine, fentanyl and heroin from multiple places, including some groups in California.
Thirteen other co-defendants have already been convicted and sentenced in this case, as an investigation into the organization by the FBI, the Drug Enforcement Administration, Homeland Security Investigations, and the police departments of Virginia Beach and Norfolk began in 2020.
Dodson was caught by law enforcement after meeting up with a co-defendant, Edward Fonville, in November 2021 for a hand-to-hand drug transaction. Dodson was later approached by law enforcement and was found to be in possession of a handgun, and admitted to officers that he traded cocaine to Fonville for the weapon. After Dodson's arrest, he informed Fonville that law enforcement was investigating him. Fonville is currently a fugitive.
The case was part of an operation carried out by the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces, an organization that attempts to dismantle high-level criminal organizations that threaten national security.
