Eric Wayne Otey Jr. pleaded guilty Friday to his involvement in a heroin ring that brought at least 130,000 bags of the highly addictive drug into the Roanoke Valley each year.

A bag of heroin is an individual dose, about 0.03 of a gram, that sells for about $25 on the street.

Otey, 27, was part of a loosely organized network of heroin dealers and users that local authorities fear is responsible for an increase in the drug's use, especially among young people.

Because the ring had three leaders -- each with his own supply chain and network of underlings -- it's difficult to say just how much heroin it imported from places such as Philadelphia and New Jersey since 2002.

But extrapolations from multiple witnesses put the amount at between 130,000 and 250,000 bags a year, federal prosecutor Don Wolthuis said during a hearing in U.S. District Court in Roanoke.

Also at Friday's hearing, authorities mentioned for the first time a fatal heroin overdose that may be linked to the organization, although not to Otey personally.

A paragraph in Otey's plea agreement said the government, "after careful review ... is unable to prove or otherwise establish" that he distributed the drugs that caused the death.

No additional details about the overdose were presented in court, and Wolthuis declined to comment on it afterward.

Had Otey been linked to the overdose, he could have faced an enhanced punishment. As it is, he will get at least five years in prison, and as many as 40, when he is sentenced in May.

About a dozen people have been indicted so far; Otey was the second defendant to plead guilty.

According to Wolthuis' summary of evidence, the drug ring also peddled cocaine, with some dealers slipping heroin into the powdered drug to create a more dependent customer base.

Defense attorney Brad Braford said Otey had nothing to do with that.