24 Years In Prison For Leader Of Crack Distribution Ring

(GREENVILLE, Tenn. - Marco Bobo, 39, of Forrest City, Arkansas was sentenced on November 21, 2016, by the Honorable J. Ronnie Greer, U.S. District Court Judge, to serve 292 months in federal prison. Upon his release from prison he will be supervised by the U.S. Probation Office for five years. There is no parole in the federal system.

Bobo pleaded guilty in August 2016 to a conspiracy to distribute 280 grams or more of crack cocaine. He was the leader of a drug trafficking organization involving seven co-defendants, which obtained powder cocaine in Forrest City, Ark., and transported it to Kingsport, Tenn., where it was “cooked” into crack cocaine and distributed in the Tri-Cities. Bobo admitted to being conservatively responsible for distributing between 2.8 and 8.4 (6 to 18.5 pounds) of crack cocaine. In addition to receiving cash, he also received firearms in exchange for crack cocaine, some of which he kept and some he distributed to known drug traffickers. 

Bobo faced a minimum mandatory sentence of at least 20 years in prison as a result of trafficking in at least 280 or more grams of crack cocaine.            

Agencies involved in this investigation included the Second Judicial District Drug Task Force, Kingsport Police Department, Sullivan County Sheriff’s Office, Bristol Police Department, Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco Firearms and Explosives, Internal Revenue Service, and Drug Enforcement Administration. J. Gregory Bowman, Assistant U.S. Attorney represented the United States.               

This case was a result of the Department of Justice’s Organized Crime and Drug Enforcement Task (OCDETF) program, the centerpiece of the Department of Justice’s drug supply reduction strategy. OCDETF was established in 1982 to conduct comprehensive, multi-level attacks on major drug trafficking and money laundering organizations. Today, OCDETF combines the resources and expertise of its member federal agencies in cooperation with state and local law enforcement. The principal mission of the OCDETF program is to identify, disrupt, and dismantle the most serious drug trafficking and money laundering organizations and those primarily responsible for the nation’s drug supply.

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.justhinktwice.com, www.GetSmartAboutDrugs.com and www.dea.gov.