PORT ANGELES — A 38-year-old Port Angeles man has been sentenced to 20 months in prison for selling heroin to an Olympic Peninsula Narcotics Enforcement Team informant.
Ralph O. Needham pleaded guilty to the Class B felony before he was sentenced in Clallam County Superior Court on Feb. 20.
OPNET investigators said Needham sold 1.9 grams of heroin to an informant for $125 at the east Port Angeles Safeway store July 6, 2011.
The substance was tested at a State Patrol crime lab and was confirmed to be heroin, according to the certification of probable cause.
Prosecutors dismissed two counts of delivery of heroin and one count of bail jumping in exchange for the guilty plea.
Needham had five prior convictions for possession of controlled substances, OPNET supervisor Jason Viada said.
“OPNET’s mission is to aggressively investigate illegal narcotics deliveries in Clallam County and Jefferson County,” Viada said.
“OPNET’s primary focus is and will continue to be cases involving heroin and methamphetamine.”
Arrest Sunday
In another narcotics case, Matthew M. Malcom, 22, was arrested Sunday by Sequim police after investigators developed probable cause that he sold methamphetamine and heroin within 1,000 feet of a school bus stop, Viada said.
Malcom, of Port Angeles, was charged Wednesday. He is being held in the Clallam County jail on $17,500 bond.
An arraignment is set for next Friday.
