From The Tribune staff reports
BIRMINGHAM — A federal judge last week sentenced a career offender to nearly 18 years in prison for conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine, announced U.S. Attorney Prim F. Escalona and Drug Enforcement Administration Assistant Special Agent in Charge Towanda Thorne-James.
In August 2019, a federal grand jury charged Lane and others in a multi-count indictment with participating in a drug trafficking organization that transported heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine, and fentanyl from Mexico to Talladega for distribution between May 2017 and July 2019.
The DEA investigated the case along with the Talladega County Drug Task Force. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Blake Milner and Austin Shutt prosecuted the case.
This investigation is part of the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF). OCDETF is an independent component of the U.S. Department of Justice. Established in 1982, OCDETF is the centerpiece of the Attorney General’s strategy to combat transnational-organized-crime and to reduce the availability of illicit narcotics in the nation by using a prosecutor-led, multi-agency approach to enforcement.