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U.S. Department of Justice PRESS RELEASE FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE |
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SE District Man Receives Life Sentence in International Drug Trafficking Conspiracy Case
Washington, D.C. - A 58-year-old Southeast District of Columbia man, Anthony A. Rice, has been sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole for his role in an international drug trafficking conspiracy, U.S. Attorney Jeffrey A. Taylor announced today.
Rice, who received his sentence yesterday in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia before the Honorable Reggie B. Walton, was found guilty in February 2006 of conspiracy to import and conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute heroin, cocaine and cocaine base. The drugs, which were imported from Venezuela and the Dominican Republic, were received by Rice and others, who then distributed them on the streets of the metropolitan Washington area.
In sentencing Rice to life without parole, Judge Walton noted that Rice and others like him who deal narcotics pose a very real danger to the citizens of this city. Judge Walton further noted that when he left the Superior Court bench to take his seat on the federal court, he left behind a calendar in which he was supervising 5,000 children, many of whom were without parental support because their parents were drug victims and many of whom were themselves suffering from the physical effects of their parents’ drug use.
The Indictment in which Rice and others were charged was the result of a three-year investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Metropolitan Police Department and the Drug Enforcement Administration in the District of Columbia, Venezuela and the Dominican Republic. Law enforcement utilized court authorized electronic surveillance in the District of Columbia and in the Dominican Republic to trace narcotics from Venezuela to the Dominican Republic into the United States and ultimately to the streets of the District of Columbia. With the full cooperation and assistance of law enforcement in the Dominican Republic, defendants were charged in the District of Columbia and in the Dominican Republic and Venezuela.
In announcing the sentence, U.S. Attorney Taylor noted the unique nature of this case in which law enforcement was able to trace the source the drugs back to its origin in foreign countries. This case reflected the extraordinary dedication and skill on the part of the law enforcement officers involved. Agents were required to review literally thousands of hours of lawfully seized wire surveillance and spent hundreds of hours in conducting physical surveillance and undercover purchases of drugs. U.S. Attorney Tayor noted that dozens of agents and officers were engaged in this investigation, but particularly praised the hard work and professionalism of Agents Vincent B. Lisi, John Bevington and Jimmy F. Pope, Jr., of the FBI; Agents Judith L. Stephens, John Hagerty, Isabelo Alvarez and Juan Arrivillaga of the DEA; and Detectives Barbra Lyles, Richard Watkins, Kirk Delpo, King Watts, Stephen Franchak and Steven Manley of the Metropolitan Police Department. U.S. Taylor also commended Kenneth Mansfield, Thomasenia Manson, Diane Brashears and Sarah Forrest of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for their work on this matter. Lastly, Mr. Taylor thanked and commended Assistant U.S. Attorneys Nancy B. Jackson and William J. O’Malley, Jr., who prosecuted the case.
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