GREENBELT, Md. (Feb. 8, 2008) - U.S. District Judge Roger W. Titus sentenced Terry Barba, age 35, of Newark, New Jersey on Wednesday to 20 years in prison followed by five years of supervised release for conspiracy to distribute and possess cocaine and cocaine base, announced United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Rod J. Rosenstein. Judge Titus enhanced Barba’s sentence upon finding that he is a career offender based on his two prior convictions for manslaughter and distribution of cocaine near a school zone.
According to his guilty plea, from 2005 to 2006 Barba supplied cocaine hydrochloride to another individual who smuggled the cocaine back to St. Mary’s County, Maryland for further distribution. Barba was responsible for the distribution of between 3.5 and five kilograms of cocaine hydrochloride.
Twelve other defendants have pleaded guilty to their involvement in the drug distribution network, including Edwin Elton Johnson, age 33, of Lexington Park, Maryland who was sentenced to 86 months, and Paul Bibeau, age 54, of Ridge, Maryland who was sentenced to 46 months.
United States Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein thanked the Drug Enforcement Administration, St. Mary’s County Sheriff’s Office and the Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigations for their investigative work in this Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force case, and commended Assistant United States Attorneys Barbara S. Skalla and James A. Crowell, who prosecuted the case.