U.S. District Judge Roger W. Titus sentenced Terry Barba, 35, of Newark, NJ to 20 years in prison followed by five years of supervised release for conspiracy to distribute and possess cocaine and cocaine base.
Judge Titus on Wednesday enhanced Barba’s sentence upon finding that he is a career offender based on his two prior convictions for manslaughter and distribution of cocaine near a school zone.
According to his guilty plea, from 2005 to 2006 Barba supplied cocaine hydrochloride to another individual who smuggled the cocaine back to St. Mary’s County, for further distribution. Barba was responsible for the distribution of between 3.5 and five kilograms of cocaine hydrochloride.
A total of 12 other defendants have pleaded guilty to their involvement in the drug distribution network, including Edwin Elton Johnson, 33, of Lexington Park, who was sentenced to 86 months, and Paul Bibeau, 54, of Ridge, who was sentenced to 46 months.
U.S. Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein thanked the Drug Enforcement Administration, St. Mary’s County Sheriff’s Office and the Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigations for their investigative work in this Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force case.