A Washington C.H. man received an eight-to-nine-and-a-half year prison sentence this week after he pled guilty to three felony counts of aggravated trafficking in methamphetamine.

As part of an agreement with the state, Joshua E. Frost, 39, of 1010 Briar Ave., admitted in Fayette County Common Pleas Court to the sale of a large amount of meth on three separate occasions in February 2020. He was one of the subjects of a drug trafficking investigation by the Fayette County Sheriff’s Office and the US 23 Major Crimes Task Force.

The ongoing investigation ended July 1 with a traffic stop on the parking lot of the Flying J Travel Center on State Route 41 NW in Jeffersonville, according to Fayette County Sheriff Vernon Stanforth. The suspects — identified as Frost and Bethany L. Viar, 20, also of Briar Avenue — were inside a 2010 Hyundai Elantra at the time of the stop.

Deputy Jason Havens and K-9 officer, “Odra,” conducted a “free-air sniff of the vehicle’s exterior and received a positive indication for the presence of narcotics inside the vehicle,” said Stanforth. A search found more than 200 grams of a substance presumptively identified as methamphetamine.

Following the traffic stop, sheriff’s detectives and task force agents obtained and executed a search warrant early Thursday morning at the suspect’s residence on Briar Avenue, which reportedly led to the discovery of additional evidence. Frost and Viar were transported to the Fayette County Jail and incarcerated, and the vehicle was impounded by the sheriff’s office.

In October, Viar was sentenced to two-and-a-half years in prison after she pled guilty to aggravated trafficking in drugs, a felony of the third degree.

Reach Record-Herald Editor Ryan Carter at 740-313-0352.