KANSAS CITY, Mo. – David M. Ketchmark, Acting United States Attorney for the Western District of Missouri, announced that a Kansas City, Mo., man was sentenced in federal court today for distributing crack cocaine and illegally possessing a firearm.

Frank T. Martin, also known as “Jug,” 28, of Kansas City, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Gary A. Fenner to 20 years in federal prison without parole.

On Oct. 20, 2011, Martin pleaded guilty to three counts of distributing crack cocaine, to one count of being a felon in possession of a firearm, and to one count of carrying a firearm during and in relation to a drug trafficking crime.

Martin sold crack cocaine to an undercover Kansas City police officer on three separate occasions in July 2009. After the third undercover drug transaction, police officers attempted to conduct a traffic stop of Martin’s vehicle. During a short car chase, officers saw Martin throw the undercover drug money out the car’s window. After the vehicle was stopped, Martin was arrested and the vehicle searched. Officers found a loaded Sig Sauer .40-caliber handgun under the front passenger seat of Martin’s vehicle.

Under federal law, it is illegal for anyone who has been convicted of a felony to be in  possession of any firearm or ammunition. Martin has prior felony convictions for resisting arrest, robbery, trafficking and tampering.

This case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Catherine Connelly. It was investigated by the Kansas City, Mo., Police Department and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

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