Sentencing for Ohio leader of $1M heroin ring

COLUMBUS (AP) — The leader of an Ohio drug ring the government said moved more than $1 million in heroin a year faces life in prison when a judge sentences him.

Ronald Kelsor was convicted in August of orchestrating an operation of nearly three dozen people moving heroin from central Ohio down U.S. Route 33 into Appalachia.

He was to be sentenced today in U.S. District Court here.

The Justice Department says Columbus has developed into a regional hub for Mexican heroin supplied to Ohio, West Virginia, and western Pennsylvania.

The investigation into the heroin ring led to federal drug trafficking charges against 31 other people.

Twenty-nine of Kelsor’s co-defendants pleaded guilty and two died since their arrest.