Gulfport, Miss. – On Tuesday, July 27, 2021, a jury in federal court convicted two men of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute cocaine and attempt to possess with intent to distribute cocaine, announced Acting U.S. Attorney Darren J. LaMarca and Jack P. Staton, Acting Special Agent in Charge of Homeland Security Investigations in New Orleans.
According to the evidence presented, Antony Daniel Abreu, 33, of Queens, New York, and Darrell Young, 47, of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, arranged to purchase 17 kilos of cocaine from an individual in Gulfport. The defendants shipped a car from Philadelphia that contained a hidden compartment in the trunk in which they hid cash. At the time of their arrest on April 20, 2020, the defendants were staying in an AirBnB rental in Gulfport where law enforcement found saran wrap, duct tape, dryer sheets and other materials for packing the cocaine. Overall, law enforcement seized over $200,000 as part of this operation. Prosecutors utilized phone dumps from 8 different seized cell phones along with recorded phone calls to show the conspiracy stretched as far as the Dominican Republic.
Abreu and Young are scheduled to be sentenced on November 4, 2020. Each faces a mandatory minimum of 10 years in prison. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.
Acting United States Attorney Darren J. LaMarca commented, “Thanks to the efforts of the agents of Homeland Security Investigations and the officers of the Harrison County Sheriff’s office, these major drug dealers are out of circulation. They will no longer peddle poison throughout the nation.”
The case was investigated by Homeland Security Investigations and the Harrison County Sheriff’s Office.
Assistant U.S. Attorneys Jonathan Buckner and Annette Williams prosecuted the case.
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