Sexshuns owner pleads guilty to pot charges

A former Charlottesville business owner authorities said was a ringleader in a marijuana conspiracy has pleaded guilty in federal court.

Reynold George Samuels, 39, pleaded guilty Monday morning to conspiring to distribute a controlled substance and copyright infringement. According to authorities, he faces up to life in prison and/or a fine of more than $4 million at sentencing on Jan. 12.

Authorities have described Samuels as the head of the drug operation, organizing shipments of marijuana from New York that others distributed locally. According to a news release, Samuels admitted in Charlottesville’s federal court on Monday that the conspiracy distributed more than 3,000 kilograms of marijuana and more than 50 grams of crack in the region under his watch. He also said in court that he sold several pirated videos to undercover law enforcement officers last winter, the release noted.

Samuels and seven others were charged in February under a 15-count indictment from a federal grand jury. Sexshuns, the apparel store that Samuels ran on the Downtown Mall, was raided by federal agents around the same time.

Samuels’s brother, Carl Anthony Samuels, also was charged under the indictment. He pleaded guilty in September to a drug charge and will face up to 20 years in prison when he is sentenced Dec. 22.

Jvon Barnett, Andre Alexander Williams and Joe Davis Williams III all face sentencing on drug charges in the coming weeks. Penny Alisha Miles and Barnett’s brother, Travis McKinsley Barnett, are scheduled for a trial next month.

Reginald Vaughn Bly was previously sentenced to 40 months in prison for acting as a drug courier from New York to Charlottesville.