A convicted killer and several other people have been charged in a wide-ranging heroin-distribution ring that authorities say contributed to a Manassas woman’s deadly overdose.
Court records say Brian C. Jones, who served 26 years in prison for murder in New York, was charged in federal court in Alexandria with conspiracy to distribute heroin. Jones was part of an operation that distributed heroin throughout Prince William County, primarily in Manassas, from about January 2010 to September 2011, according to court documents.
At least three others have been charged so far in connection with the case. Court documents indicate the ring involved more than a dozen people who supplied and distributed the drugs to “dozens of end users” around Manassas.
The operation is also associated with a death: In December 2010, 27-year-old Aya McCord died from a heroin overdose, and the “heroin that led to her overdose was obtained during the course and in furtherance of the conspiracy,” an FBI agent wrote in a criminal complaint.
According to several criminal complaints filed this month, FBI agents have been investigating the drug-distribution network for about a year. The people involved in the ring obtained heroin from various sources in Virginia, Maryland, the District and New York, then brought it back to Prince William County to sell.
Three women who allegedly worked with Jones have also been charged: Linda Cox, Kira O’Neill and Rachel Allen. No attorneys were listed in court records for any of the defendants.
Jones came to Woodbridge after he was paroled in June 2009, according to court documents. Six months later, he was injured at work, lost his job and began selling cocaine and heroin to make money, Jones told investigators in September when he was in jail in Manassas on charges of malicious wounding, grand larceny and robbery, the documents say.
O’Neill and McCord were close friends and, until McCord’s death, the two worked together to prepare heroin for distribution and deliver it to customers, court documents say.
Allen was a main facilitator in making connections to obtain the heroin and also helped distribute it, and Cox was a key distributor, according to court records.
Court documents don’t say the total amount of drugs the operation is alleged to have distributed, but there are indications the quantity was significant: For a month and a half in fall 2010, for instance, Jones was buying $850 to $1,000 of heroin every two days to redistribute and sell.
