Antonio Fleming, 35, was sentenced Tuesday to more than five years in prison for charges related to a drug conspiracy prosecutors say he helped run through an Anchorage-based hip-hop music label and rap group.
U.S. District Court Chief Judge Ralph Beistline handed down the sentence of 52 months, plus an additional five years of supervised release, in federal court on Tuesday. In addition, Fleming received 18 months for violating his parole in an earlier 2002 drug conspiracy, bringing his sentence to a total of 70 months imprisonment.
In a Department of Justice release following the sentencing, U.S. Attorney Karen Loeffler announced that Fleming's conspiracy ranged from Fairbanks to Anchorage.
In court prosecutors argued Fleming and 13 others concealed a drug operation behind an Anchorage record label and several rap and hip-hop performance groups under names like “Out Da Cutt” Entertainment and “Up North ‘D’” or “Dope Boys. “
“He held himself out as a sort of business manager for the groups, gave interviews to publications, and was talking to record labels,” said Assistant U.S. Attorney Kelly Cavanaugh. The record label “was essentially just a hobby for these guys,” he added.
Their music “glorified” selling drugs and other crimes, the release noted.
“I think they were very much flaunting it,” Cavanaugh said, adding that the music and performances by the groups were posted online on website like YouTube. “In some aspects the higher level members of conspiracy were intelligent about it, they only dealt with certain individuals, but lower levels were not intelligent about it, and that’s how they got caught.”
Cavanugh said law enforcement surveillance caught Fleming “in a drug drop” where money was left in his vehicle for a prior drug deal.
The lengthy investigation, a cooperative effort between the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Anchorage Police Department, led to investigators identifying a car used by co-conspirator Donnell Johnson. That vehicle, Cavanaugh said, was part of a January 2012 traffic stop that found Johnson in possession of 12 kilograms, or more than 26 pounds, of cocaine.
Cavanaugh said the drugs were traced to a supplier, Terrance Fleming, the cousin of Antonio Fleming. Cavanaugh said Johnson and Terrance Fleming were “the main co-conspirators involved” in the trafficking operation. The men, along with two other co-conspirators, Tevoris Carter and Emma Shine, have also entered guilty pleas.
Cavanaugh said he doesn't know when the remaining members of the conspiracy will be sentenced, or how much time they are facing in jail.