United States Drug Enforcement Administration

RICHMOND, Va. – A Mecklenburg County man was sentenced today to more than 15 years in prison for possession with intent to distribute over 27 kilograms of cocaine.

According to court documents, Vincent Maurice Lewis, 45, arranged for the delivery of 28 kilograms of cocaine from Texas to Virginia. On May 30, 2019, a tractor-trailer that originated in Texas and was driven by co-defendant Jorge Enrique Suarez, delivered the cocaine to Lewis in Brodnax. Lewis had received multiple shipments of cocaine from the suppliers in Texas and had distributed at least 71 kilograms of cocaine starting before January 2018 and through his arrest in May 2019.

Suarez was sentenced to 36 months in prison in December 2019.

Special Agent in Charge for the Drug Enforcement Administration’s (DEA) Washington Field Division; G. Zachary Terwilliger, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia; Jesse R. Fong, and Colonel Gary T. Settle, Superintendent of Virginia State Police, made the announcement after sentencing by Senior U.S. District Judge Robert E. Payne. Assistant U.S. Attorney Olivia L. Norman prosecuted the case.

The case was investigated as part of the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF), Operation Swan Song. The OCDETF program is a federal multi-agency, multi-jurisdictional task force that supplies supplemental federal funding to the federal and state agencies involved in the identification, investigation, and prosecution of major drug trafficking organizations.  The principle mission of the OCDETF program is to identify, disrupt and dismantle the most serious drug trafficking, weapons trafficking and money laundering organizations, and those primarily responsible for the nation’s illegal drug supply.

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