Two Camden men were sentenced to prison in connection with their roles as set workers in a large-scale drug trafficking organization (DTO) that distributed cocaine base, cocaine, and/or heroin, U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman announced today.
Marqueis Thomas Randall, a/k/a “Marty,” 23, was sentenced to 100 months in prison; Elquinzie Lewis, 23, was sentenced Sept. 29, 2015, to 48 months in prison.
Randall previously pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Robert B. Kugler in Camden federal court to a superseding information charging him with one count of conspiracy to distribute and to possess with intent to distribute 28 grams or more of cocaine base and 100 grams or more of heroin, and one count of being a previously convicted felon in possession of a firearm.
Lewis previously pleaded guilty before Judge Kugler to a superseding information charging him with using a communications facility to further a drug trafficking crime.
In April 2013, seven alleged members of the drug trafficking organization were charged by criminal complaint with conspiring to distribute cocaine base, cocaine, and heroin.
The five remaining defendants are scheduled for trial on Jan. 11, 2016.
According to documents filed in this case and statements made in court:
The organization controlled an area that includes the area of Eighth and Tulip Streets, a retail shopping plaza in the 700 block of Morgan Boulevard, and areas within the Crestbury Apartments public housing project, located in the 2500 block of South Eighth Street.
The investigation into the organization involved physical surveillance, confidential informants, telephone wiretaps, controlled drug purchases, and record checks. In one recorded conversation from the wiretap, one of the alleged leaders told Lewis: “My thing is loyalty. You rolling with us, you got loyalty. You all right. You rolling with us that mean everybody you see got your back a hundred percent, like that’s what I mean by loyalty. It’s bigger than what’s just going on.”
In addition to the prison term, Judge Kugler sentenced Randall to five years of supervised release and sentenced Lewis to one year of supervised release.