February 5, 2016
By Paul Joseph, Paragon Communications News Director –
An Ohio man has been sentenced to serve time in the Oklahoma Department of Corrections.
30-year-old Berek Ethan Rankin of Dublin, Ohio recently pleaded guilty to aggravated trafficking of drugs through western Oklahoma and has been sentenced to prison.
According to a police affidavit, on June 15 of 2-14, Rankin was clocked by the Oklahoma Highway Patrol doing 74 mph in a 70 mph zone on Interstate 40 and his vehicle’s tag was obstructed.
The trooper initiated a traffic stop on the Interstate near the K-mart exit in Clinton but following a normal verbal exchange between the trooper and Rankin who was about to get a warning, the officer noticed Rankin’s voice begin to quiver. He gave the trooper a nervous laugh. The affidavit says Rankin’s hands were visibly shaking, he kept rubbing his leg and fidgeting so the patrolman decided he’d request a drug-sniffing dog.
Inside the 2013 Kia, officers later identified two large containers of protein powder inside silver bags that contained four bricks of a white, powdery substance that later field tested positive for cocaine. The bricks weighed 5.2 pounds. The estimated street value of the cocaine is more than $60-thousand-dollars.
He pled guilty to the felony charge and was sentenced to 15-years in the Oklahoma Department of Corrections and will additionally serve a term of post-imprisonment supervision of one year.
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