JERMAINE WILLIAMS, ages 26, a resident of New Orleans, Louisiana, was sentenced today by U. S. District Court Judge Stanwood Duval to 126 months in prison for participation in a conspiracy to distribute heroin and cocaine hydrochloride, announced U. S. Attorney Jim Letten.

According to the court documents, the investigation which led to WILLIAMS’ arrest and conviction was rooted in the heroin trafficking activities in the B. W. Cooper public housing development. WILLIAMS and his associates sold “bundles” of heroin on a daily basis for distribution to addicts in B. W. Cooper Housing Development. WILLIAMS and his associates also purchased firearms and possessed firearms for protection from those who would try to steal their bundles of heroin or the money they made from selling heroin. As part of his guilty plea to the federal charges, WILLIAMS admitted that prior to going to Orleans Parish Prison after a state arrest on a drug charge in June 2009, he had possessed assault weapons that were stored under the porches of the apartments in the B. W. Cooper public housing development where he and his associates sold heroin.

The case was investigated by DEA in collaboration with the Gulf Coast High Intensity Drug Trafficking Task Force (HIDTA) and the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF).

The HIDTA Task Force is led by DEA and includes a team of dedicated investigators from the New Orleans Police Department and the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco and Firearms. OCDETF is an important program which targets the most significant drug trafficking organizations within the United States, as well as those outside of the United States borders that impact drug trafficking within the United States. Also assisting in the enforcement operations were the Louisiana State Police, Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Office, Kenner Police Department, and St. Tammany Parish Sheriff’s Office, the United States Internal Revenue Service, and the Department for Housing and Urban Development-OIG.

 

 

 

 

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