| News
Release
October 25, 2004
Prince
George's County Drug Dealer Sentenced
to Life Imprisonment
OCT
29--A Prince George’s County drug dealer received
a mandatory life sentence in federal prison for his role as a leader
of a drug conspiracy which was responsible for distributing crack
cocaine. Laura M. Nagel, Special Agent in Charge of DEA’s Washington
Division announced today that Marshall Nicholson, Jr., age 38, of
Palmer Park, Maryland was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge
Alexander Williams for distributing crack cocaine in Prince George’s
County from at least 1999 through June of 2003.
The Drug Enforcement Administration, the
Prince George’s
County Police Department, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation conducted
a lengthy investigation of Nicholson, Jr.’s drug activities. The
investigation centered on the Nicholson family residence located on Allendale
Drive in Palmer Park, Maryland, and within eyesight of the headquarters
of the Prince George’s County Police Department. In fact, surveillance
of the residence was frequently conducted from the PGPD headquarters
parking lot. As a result of the investigation, ten individuals were charged.
Several individuals pled guilty and received substantial terms of imprisonment.
Nicholson, Jr. and several codefendants, including his parents, Marshall
Nicholson, Sr. and Gladys Nicholson, went to trial in the spring of 2004.
Today, Marshall Nicholson, Jr. was sentenced to mandatory
life imprisonment for conspiracy to distribute cocaine and cocaine base
and two counts of distribution
of fifty grams or more of cocaine base. He also received concurrent sentences
of a non-mandatory life sentence for distribution of five hundred grams or
more of cocaine; four years imprisonment for use of a telephone in furtherance
of
the drug conspiracy to launder drug proceeds.
Nicholson, Sr., who permitted his son
to use the family residence on Allendale Drive to distribute and store
drugs, was sentenced
on September 13, 2004, to
135 months in prison and five years of supervised release. Gladys Nicholson
was convicted of money laundering and is scheduled to be sentenced on December
13,
2004. The money laundering conviction was based on Gladys Nicholson’s
purchase of a $500,000 Charles County residence located on Dunbratton Court
in Waldorf,
Maryland, in her name with the drug proceeds of her son.
In addition to the sentences imposed, Nicholson, Jr. and
Nicholson, Sr. were ordered to forfeit $1.5 million, and their interests
in the residences located
on Dunbratton Court and on Allendale Drive as well as numerous motor vehicles,
jewelry, and other and personal property.
The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys
Chan Park and Deborah Johnston.
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