Cincinnati man will serve 8 years for role in high school drug ring

LEBANON, Ohio - A Cincinnati man will spend the next eight years behind bars for participating in a drug trafficking organization that supplied high-grade marijuana to students in two Warren County school districts.

A Warren County jury found Allen Honeycutt, 59, guilty Thursday of trafficking, possession and cultivation of marijuana, as well as possession of criminal tools and engaging in a pattern of corrupt activity. 

“Allen Honeycutt and his co-conspirators made hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of dollars trafficking drugs to our young people,” Warren County Prosecutor David Fornshell said in a statement after the verdict and sentence. “It is particularly satisfying to see him have to answer for his despicable actions.”

Common Pleas Court Judge Robert Peeler immediately sentenced Honeycutt to serve a mandatory eight years in prison and pay fines of $17,500. He must also serve five years of post-release control after he is released from prison.

In February 2012, a Warren County grand jury returned a five-count indictment against Honeycutt for his involvement in the drug trafficking ring. Officers found three indoor grow operations that produced high-grade marijuana sold by the organization throughout southwestern Ohio during their investigation. According to court documents, officers seized 600 marijuana plants, over $100,000 in cash and several hundred grams of harvested marijuana. The marijuana had an estimated street value of $2.9 million, according to Warren County police. 

Investigators were able to trace the distribution network to a then-17-year-old Mason High School student, Tyler Pagenstecher, who prosecutors labeled a primary source for marijuana for students in the Mason and Kings school districts.

Honeycutt was the last person to face charges among seven adults and the Pagenstecher whose involvement ultimately allowed authorities to bust the sophisticated operation. Pagenstecher admitted his involvement and was sentenced to six months to three years in a juvenile detention facility last October.