Jury convicts career drug dealer of trafficking cocaine
ATLANTA – Alfonzo Jamal Lewis has been convicted by a federal jury of conspiracy to possess cocaine with intent to distribute, and possession of cocaine with intent to distribute.
This successful investigation and prosecution should be a warning to other drug traffickers that the Atlanta-Carolinas High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area, and our federal, state, local and Tribal partners are committed to keeping our communities safe,” said Director Daniel Salter, Atlanta-Carolinas HIDTA Program.
“For more than a decade, despite a ceaseless pattern of criminality, Alfonzo Lewis was a beneficiary of probated sentences and dismissed charges in the state system,” said U.S. Attorney Byung J. “BJay” Pak. “My office and the Office of National Drug Control Policy’s HIDTA program are committed to ensuring that drug dealers and traffickers like Lewis are held to account for their crimes.”
According to U.S. Attorney Pak, the charges and other information presented in court: On multiple occasions in late 2015, Lewis traveled from southwest Georgia to the Atlanta metro area and purchased bulk amounts of cocaine. He then took the cocaine back to the Albany, Georgia, area to sell. On August 20, 2015, HIDTA agents observed Lewis entering and exiting a drug stash house in Decatur, Georgia, but did not attempt an arrest.
Four months later, on December 14, 2015, agents observed Lewis entering and exiting a drug stash house in East Point, Georgia where they observed him place a backpack on the backseat of his vehicle. While on his way back to Albany from East Point, Lewis’s vehicle was stopped by the Fulton County Sheriff’s Office and Georgia State Patrol for speeding. Five kilograms of highly-pure cocaine were recovered from the backseat, and Lewis was arrested.
Immediately following his arrest, Lewis was charged in Fulton County Superior Court with trafficking in cocaine. Lewis had been released from prison only one year earlier. Despite having recently served a sentence for several serious state offenses, including aggravated assault, possession of cocaine with intent to distribute within 1,000 feet of a school, and possession of marijuana with intent to distribute, Lewis was granted a bond and released from state custody on the Fulton County charge. A Superior Court judge later dismissed the trafficking case entirely. Thereafter, a federal grand jury charged Lewis with conspiracy to possess cocaine with intent to distribute and possession of cocaine with intent to distribute. After a three-day trial, Lewis was convicted on February 5, 2020 of both charges.
Sentencing for Alfonzo Jamal Lewis, a/k/a Pookie, 34, of Albany, Georgia, is scheduled for May 12, 2020, at 1:30 p.m. before U.S. District Judge William M. Ray, II.
This case is being investigated by the Atlanta-Carolinas HIDTA and Fulton County Sheriff’s Office. The Georgia State Patrol, Georgia Bureau of Investigation, Monroe Police Department, Albany Police Department, and U.S. Marshals Service provided valuable assistance.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Theodore S. Hertzberg and Emory Law School Extern Joseph N. Lenoff are prosecuting the case.
The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) encourages parents, along with their children, to educate themselves about the dangers of legal and illegal drugs by visiting DEA’s interactive websites at www.justhinktwice.com, www.GetSmartAboutDrugs.com and www.dea.gov. Also follow DEA Atlanta via Twitter at @DEAATLANTADiv.
