'Major drug offender' sentenced to long prison term in Williams County

BRYAN — An Edgerton man with a considerable record of drug trafficking was sentenced here recently in Williams County Common Pleas Court to a long prison term on five charges.

Peter Moses, 47, was given prison terms totaling 13 to 19 1/2 years by Judge J.T. Stelzer on charges of possession of cocaine, a first-degree felony; aggravated trafficking in methamphetamine, a first-degree felony; and three counts of aggravated trafficking in drugs, each a second-degree felony. Some $1,270 in cash seized by authorities also was ordered forfeited while Moses is required to reimburse the state $1,900 for undercover drug purchases.

The minimum 13 years is mandatory time, according to Williams County Prosecutor Katie Zartman who described Moses as a “key figure in the local drug trade” in a news release issued this week.

According to public records, Moses had three low-level felony drug trafficking convictions in Williams County Common Pleas Court (in 1996, 1998 and 2008) for selling either cocaine or marijuana — all of which resulted in jail or prison time — and at least one other conviction in Steuben County, Ind., in 2003 for possession of methamphetamine.

But in the most recent case, the amount of drugs was large enough to prompt much more serious charges.

The Edgerton Police Department, Williams County Sheriff’s Office and the Multi-Area Narcotics (MAN) Unit — composed of law enforcement from several surrounding jurisdictions — carried out a search warrant at Moses’ 128 W. Lynn St. residence in Edgerton on May 1, seizing more than 500 grams of methamphetamine and more than 30 grams of cocaine.

The MAN Unit’s commander, Steven Mueller of the Defiance County Sheriff’s Office, called Moses a “major drug distributor in Williams County” who had been “known to us for some time.”

He added that “the agencies involved in this case, including the Edgerton Police Department, Williams County Sheriff’s Office and the Williams County Prosecutor’s Office did a fantastic job in seeing it (the case) through to completion.”

Zartman commented that “the work of the MAN Unit in bringing the offenders involved in this case to justice cannot be praised enough. They put in extensive work to root out this major drug offender who was supplying drugs to our area, made significant efforts to obtain the evidence to prove his criminal actions, and then presented an airtight evidentiary case, all in an attempt to help our community and our citizens be safer from the drugs that are destroying lives and killing people. We all owe the MAN Unit a debt of gratitude on this case and all of their work.”

A Williams County assistant prosecutor to Zartman, Emil Gravelle III, stated that the case’s resolution “represents a significant victory in our efforts to combat drug trafficking and improve community safety. “The diligent work of the MAN Unit was instrumental in bringing Peter Moses to justice, and the positive impact on our community is already evident.”