United States Drug Enforcement Administration

GREENEVILLE, Tenn. - Michael Ray Mangum, 43, of Kingsport, Tenn., was sentenced on July 2, 2015, by the Honorable R. Leon Jordan, U.S. District Court Judge, to serve 120 months in federal prison for his role in an extensive a-(alpha-pyrrolidinopentiophenone) distribution conspiracy centered in and around the Sullivan County area. A-PVP is a synthetic drug which is commonly referred to on the street as “gravel” or “flakka.”

Mangum’s federal prison sentence was ordered to run consecutively to a number of sentences in Sullivan and Greene County General Sessions Court and Washington County Criminal Court.
According to the plea agreement on file with the U.S. District Court Clerk, Mangum admitted that during 2013 and 2014 he conspired to distribute, and was accountable for a conservative estimate of 4,000 grams of a-PVP. He made repeated trips to out of state suppliers in North Carolina to obtain a-PVP and brought it back to the sell in the Sullivan County area, often out of motels. He also agreed that he supplied a-PVP to another individual in exchange for allowing him to sell a-PVP from that person’s residence. Mangum admitted to being a user of a-PVP, but he told law enforcement officers that he was in it for the money.

Others who have been previously sentenced in this a-PVP trafficking investigation include Austin Michael Stallard, Johnny Michael Stallard, Phillip Wayne Mullins, Johnny White and Evelyn Vickers, who were sentenced to 121 months, 180 months, 151 months, 120 months and 110 months in federal prison respectively.

Law enforcement agencies participating in the investigation which led to the indictment and subsequent conviction of Michael Ray Mangum and his co-defendants include the Drug Enforcement Administration; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; Homeland Security Investigations; the Sullivan County Sheriff’s Office; the Kingsport Police Department; the Hawkins County Sheriff’s Department; the Johnson City Police Department; the Greeneville Police Department; the Hendersonville, North Carolina Police Department; and, the Scott County, Virginia Sheriff’s Office. Assistant U.S. Attorney Wayne Taylor represented the United States.

The 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.justthinktwice.com, www.GetSmartAboutDrugs.com and www.dea.gov.