FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT
AUSA VICKIE E. LEDUC or
MARCIA MURPHY at 410-209-4885
July 7, 2008
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
JERMARL JONES SENTENCED TO 20 YEARS IN HEROIN DISTRIBUTION CONSPIRACY
Over Two Kilograms of Heroin Seized Worth Over $1 Million
Baltimore, Maryland - U.S. District Judge Catherine C. Blake today sentenced Jermarl Albert Jones a/k/a Jamal Miles, age 31, of Owings Mills, Maryland to 20 years in prison, followed by 10 years of supervised release, for conspiracy to distribute more than two kilograms of heroin, announced United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Rod J. Rosenstein. Jones was convicted by a jury in March, 2008.
“If you sell illegal drugs and carry guns in Baltimore, federal authorities are coming after you,” said U.S. Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein. “Sending repeat offenders to prison is the key to our strategy to reduce violent crime.”
According to evidence presented at the four day trial, Jones was arrested on June 19, 2002 as he was about to enter an apartment in Cockeysville, Maryland. Police had been called to the apartment earlier in the day about a noise complaint. Officers seized over two kilograms of heroin at the apartment, having a street value of more than $1 million, as well as digital scales, approximately 20,000 gel capsules and 48 brick-shaped items labeled “mannite,” which is an agent commonly used to dilute the purity of heroin being packaged for sale. Additional searches related to the investigation recovered over $20,000, a money counter, a loaded firearm and eight false identification cards being used by Jones, including at least one driver’s license bearing his photograph, but another person’s name which he had when he was arrested.
Jones was arrested by the U.S. Marshals Service in January 2007, based on a 2005 federal arrest warrant. He was turned over to state authorities to face additional charges, then released on bail. Authorities arrested Jones again following the murder of his girlfriend on January 26, 2007, and he has been held in federal custody since then.
United States Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein praised the Baltimore County Police Department, the Drug Enforcement Administration, and the U.S. Marshals Service for their investigative work. Mr. Rosenstein thanked Assistant U.S. Attorney Philip S. Jackson, who prosecuted the case.