News Release [print-friendly version]
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 12, 2007

Meriden Man Sentenced To 10 Years In Federal Prison For
Participation In Crack Ring

OCT 12 -- June W. Stansbury, Special Agent in Charge of the Drug Enforcement Administration in New England and Kevin J. O’Connor, United States Attorney for the District of Connecticut, announced that SAMUEL KENNETH CLEMONS, 44, of Meriden, Connecticut, was sentenced today by Senior United States District Judge Peter C. Dorsey in New Haven to 120 months of imprisonment, followed by six years of supervised release, for conspiring to possess with the intent to distribute cocaine base (“crack cocaine”). CLEMONS pleaded guilty to the charge on March 20, 2007.

On October 4, 2006, a federal grand jury returned an Indictment charging CLEMONS and 34 other individuals with various narcotics offenses involving the distribution of cocaine and crack cocaine in central Connecticut. The charges against CLEMONS stem largely from intercepted telephone conversations between CLEMONS and his cocaine supplier regarding frequent crack cocaine transactions between the two. CLEMONS has been detained in federal custody since his October 6, 2006 arrest.

During the sentencing hearing, the Court indicated that the length of the sentence in this case was largely controlled by CLEMONS’ prior criminal record. According to statements made in court, CLEMONS had 18 prior convictions, including two prior felony convictions for sale of narcotics, one prior felony conviction for second degree assault, one prior felony conviction for first degree robbery and one prior felony conviction for third degree robbery. In addition, CLEMONS committed this federal crack cocaine distribution offense while serving a period of state probation.

This investigation was a collaborative effort of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Meriden Police Department.