The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Alabama reported this week that four members of a criminal narcotics conspiracy had been sentenced in federal court located in Mobile.
Federal prosecutors announced on Tuesday that Otis Sanders Jr. and Maurice Marcell Carter, both of Moss Point, Miss., Richard Dewise of Grand Bay, and Jeffrey Ryan Clark of Mobile, received their sentences on Friday in separate proceedings.
Sanders had a substantial nationwide distribution network, according to evidence produced during the trial, sourcing methamphetamine from Texas producers to distribute in Mobile.
Additionally, according to court filings, drugs were kept in storage at homes in Moss Point and south Mobile County until they were packaged into smaller amounts for distribution by local dealers. Some couriers traveled the round trip in commercial buses, while others traveled in private vehicles.
Authorities controlled the purchase of meth from Sanders, Dewise, and Carter during the course of the investigation. Investigators intercepted Dewise’s wiretaps after he was seen meeting with Sanders at a petrol station in Mississippi and prevented him from continuing on to Mobile County.
According to court documents, officials found around one kilogram of meth. According to court filings, Clark was traveling from Mobile to Houston when he was arrested in Beaumont, Texas, on suspicion of possessing one methamphetamine and $17,000 to pay a supplier.
In June 2023, as additional meth was discovered, along with a number of firearms, including a Glock machine gun with a Glock switch, the four men and other accomplices were taken into custody on federal charges.
Sanders was also identified as the aggressor in a drug-related drive-by shooting on south Mobile County’s Ramsey Road, according to federal prosecutors.
A jury found Sanders, Dewise, and Clark guilty on several counts in May 2023. Carter entered a guilty plea to one count of possession of meth with the intent to distribute and conspiracy to possess meth with that intent in November.
Sanders was sentenced to 20 years on Friday by U.S. District Judge Kristi K. Dubose for eleven counts of possessing meth and cocaine with the intent to distribute and one count of conspiring to possess with the purpose to distribute. The sentences will flow one after the other.
Read Also: Multiple Charges for Florence Man: Punching Disabled Person and Weapon Incidents
For three counts of conspiracy and possession of meth with intent to distribute, Dewise was given twelve and a half years in prison. The sentences are to run concurrently, and he will then serve five years of supervised release.
Carter received a 10-year sentence for the two offenses.
For one count of conspiring to possess meth with the intent to distribute and for one count of actually possessing meth with the intent to distribute, Clark was sentenced to ten years in prison. The sentences were served concurrently.
Following their jail sentences, all four men are required to serve five years of supervised release, subject to drug and alcohol testing and treatment, and allow searches to occur if there is a plausible suspicion that they breached their release terms.
