GREENBELT, Md. (September 17, 2011)—U.S. District Judge Peter J. Messitte sentenced Paul Dewayne Dorsey, age 30, of Mechanicsville, on Friday to 137 months in prison followed by five years of supervised release for conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute cocaine base, and being a felon in possession of a gun and ammunition.
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; Acting Special Agent in Charge Jeannine A. Hammett of the Internal Revenue Service - Criminal Investigation, Washington, D.C. Field Office; St. Mary’s County Sheriff Tim Cameron; Calvert County Sheriff Mike Evans; Charles County Sheriff Rex Coffey; and Chief Mark Magaw of the Prince George’s County Police Department.
According to Dorsey’s guilty plea, from at least June to September 10, 2009, Dorsey conspired with Rodney Estep and others to distribute and possess with intent to distribute 50 grams or more of cocaine base, commonly known as crack. Beginning in at least September 2006 through September 2009, Estep received kilogram quantities of cocaine from sources of supply in Maryland, Georgia and elsewhere. The cocaine was then smuggled into St. Mary’s County, Maryland, where Estep and others distributed the cocaine and crack cocaine from a number of locations, including properties in Morganza and Mechanicsville, used by Estep. Dorsey distributed and assisted in the distribution of the cocaine and cocaine base in St. Mary’s and Charles Counties.
For example, after law enforcement intercepted a phone call on July 3, 2009 in which Dorsey and Estep arranged a meeting, agents observed the defendants arrive at the agreed upon location where Estep provided Dorsey with two ounces of cocaine base.
A search warrant was executed on September 10, 2009 at Dorsey’s home. Agents seized a semi-automatic handgun, a loaded revolver, two joined AK-47 magazines and 23 rounds of 7.62 caliber ammunition, 36 rounds of shotgun ammunition, plastic baggies and a digital scale. Between 50 and 150 grams of cocaine base were reasonably foreseeable to Dorsey during the course of the drug conspiracy. Dorsey was previously convicted of a felony and was thus prohibited from possessing a gun or ammunition.
To date, all 15 defendants charged in this conspiracy have pleaded guilty to their participation in the drug operations. The ringleader, Rodney Matthew Estep, a/k/a “Barney Fife,” age 35, of Mechanicsville, was sentenced to 14 years in prison on May 4, 2011.
United States Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein thanked the Drug Enforcement Administration, IRS-CI and the deputies and officers from the St. Mary’s County Sheriff’s Office, Calvert County Sheriff’s Office, Charles County Sheriff’s Office, and the Prince George’s County Police Department, for their investigative work in this Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force case. Mr. Rosenstein commended Assistant United States Attorneys James A. Crowell IV and Mara Zusman Greenberg, who prosecuted the case.
Source: Office of United States Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein