United States Drug Enforcement Administration

CINCINNATI - On April 17, 2017, Raul Barocio, 47, of Cincinnati, was sentenced in U.S. District Court to 63 months in prison.  The prison sentence was the result of Barocio’s role as the source of supply for a cocaine trafficking organization operating in Cincinnati.  Barocio pled guilty in April 2016 to one count of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute cocaine.

Benjamin C. Glassman, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio, Timothy J. Plancon, Special Agent in Charge of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration’(DEA) Detroit Field Division, and other members of the DEA Task Force announced the sentences handed down by United States District Court Judge Susan Dlott.

Seven co-defendants, all Cincinnati-area residents, have also been sentenced in the cocaine conspiracy. They include:

Carmella V. Smith, who was sentenced to 87 months in prison;
Daymond Williams, who was sentenced to 108 months in prison;
Derrick Thorne, who was sentenced to 60 months in prison;
Gregory Jordan, who was sentenced to 64 months in prison;
Deantre B. Pruett, who was sentenced to 62 months in prison;
Wallace Jones, who was sentenced to 60 months in prison; and
Tonya R. Ratliff, who was sentenced to time served and three years of supervised release.

Statements in plea agreements by the defendants show that they conspired to distribute cocaine in the Cincinnati area from about February 2013 until November 2015.  Barocio admitted that his role in the conspiracy was to obtain the cocaine and provide it to Smith who then distributed it, mainly to Williams but also to others.  In the conspiracy charged, once Williams obtained cocaine from Smith he then provided it to Thorne, Jordan, Pruett, Jones and Ratliff, who in turn distributed it to street-level users.  Williams himself also supplied street-level users.

“This was a significant cocaine trafficking organization in the Cincinnati area,” U.S. Attorney Glassman said.  “Even as we work to combat the opioid epidemic in southern Ohio, we must not lose sight of the dangers posed by other drugs.  Cocaine remains a menace, and it’s important that we thwart its influence by dismantling sources of supply.”

U.S. Attorney Glassman commended the investigation by DEA task force agents, as well as Assistant United States Attorney Karl P. Kadon who represented the United States in this case.