Man agrees to 17-year sentence for running drug ring from prison HARGRAVES, Kathleen Maude RENNERS (Harris), Lorraine C.
CLEVELAND — A Cleveland man agreed to a 17-year prison sentence Tuesday after he admitted to running a large-scale drug ring from his Youngstown cell block.
Charles Daniels, 45, pleaded guilty to conspiring to deal drugs and four counts of using a phone in the commission of drug crime.
If U.S. District Judge Dan Polster decides the plea agreement is fair, he’ll formalize it at a March 14 sentencing hearing. If not, Daniels can withdraw his guilty plea, and the case will move forward.
Daniels and 16 others were charged in April. Three others have pleaded guilty so far and 11 others indicated that they intend to plead guilty.
Daniels ran the crew from his cell in the Ohio State Penitentiary, a super-maximum-security prison from October 2020 through February 2022, sometimes using the prison’s phone that recorded his calls. The group supplied fentanyl to street-level dealers in Wooster.
He used two fentanyl suppliers from Cleveland and hooked them up with street level dealers in Wayne County.
Daniels got a cut of the drug dealer’s money and at times levied threats from his prison cell. He also boasted in a recorded call how much he could do behind bars, saying “Just call me Joe Biden . ... I’m Mr. Get It Done.”
Daniels used the money to pay for phone calls from the prison and items from the commissary, court records say.
Daniels is still serving an eight-year prison sentence for his 2017 conviction for dealing heroin and fentanyl in Wayne County. Authorities at the time described him as the county’s main supplier of the drugs.
His state prison sentence in that case finishes in May 2025.
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