Elyria Man Sentenced For Trafficking Heroin, Fentanyl

ELYRIA, OH — An Elyria man was sentenced to 12 years in prison for selling heroin and fentanyl, the Department of Justice announced. He also pleaded guilty to distributing crack cocaine.

Joshua Novak, 28, was sentenced to 151 months in prison last week. He pleaded guilty to two counts of distribution of crack cocaine and one count of distribution of a mixture of heroin and fentanyl.

Novak sold crack cocaine and a mixture of heroin and fentanyl in February 2019, according to court documents. When police searched his home on February 19, they found seven grams of a heroin and fentanyl mixture, a gun, ammunition and other drug trafficking tools, the Department of Justice said.

During his sentencing hearing, Novak was found to be a career offender under the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines. He was previously convicted of two felony offenses.

The Elyria police department and the FBI investigated Novak. The case was part of the Operation Synthetic Opioid Surge (SOS), which tries to bring heroin and fentanyl cases into federal court. Lorain County is one of only 10 communities in the nation selected for the pilot program of Operation SOS.