GREENBELT, Md. (May 9, 2010) - U.S. District Judge Peter J. Messitte sentenced Travis Jamar Mills, age 21, of Hollywood, Maryland, Friday to 10 years in prison followed by five years of supervised release for conspiring to distribute over 11 pounds of cocaine.
The sentence was announced by United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Rod J. Rosenstein; Special Agent in Charge Ava Cooper-Davis of the Drug Enforcement Administration - Washington Field Division; St. Mary’s County Sheriff Tim Cameron; Calvert County Sheriff Mike Evans; Charles County Sheriff Rex Coffey; and Chief Roberto L. Hylton of the Prince George’s County Police Department.
According to Mills’s plea agreement, beginning in at least September 2006, Rodney Estep received cocaine from his sources of supply in Maryland, Georgia and elsewhere. The cocaine was smuggled back to St. Mary’s County, Maryland. From December 2007 to September 10, 2009, Estep supplied Mills and others with cocaine and cocaine base for distribution in St. Mary’s and Charles counties. Mills sold and stored the drugs at several locations, including his residence.
On September 10, 2009, a search warrant was executed at Mill’s residence, and a digital scale and several cell phones were seized. Mills is responsible for distributing between 11 and 33 pounds of cocaine, and less than a pound of cocaine base.
To date, 10 of 13 defendants charged in this conspiracy have pleaded guilty to their participation in the drug operations, including the ringleader, Rodney Matthew Estep, Jr., a/k/a “Barney Fife,” age 34, of Mechanicsville, Maryland. Estep pleaded guilty to the drug conspiracy, conducting an illegal gambling business and money laundering. Estep faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years imprisonment and a maximum sentence of life in prison at his sentencing scheduled for September 14, 2010 at 9:30 a.m. Mills is the first defendant to be sentenced in this matter.
United States Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein commended Assistant United States Attorneys James A. Crowell IV and Mara B. Zusman, who prosecuted this Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force case.
Source: Office of the United States Attorney for the District of Maryland