Havre de Grace Drug Dealer Sentenced to 15 Years In Prison

From the U.S. Attorney’s Office:

Baltimore, Maryland – U.S. District Judge William D. Quarles, Jr., sentenced Derrick Lamont Prather, age 33, of Havre de Grace, Maryland to 15 years in prison followed by five years of supervised release for possession with the intent to distribute over a pound of powder cocaine.

The sentence was announced by United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Rod J. Rosenstein; Harford County Sheriff L. Jesse Bane; Colonel Terrence Sheridan, Superintendent of the Maryland State Police; Chief Randy Rudy of the Aberdeen Police Department; Chief Teresa Walter of the Havre de Grace Police Department; Special Agent in Charge Ava Cooper-Davis of the Drug Enforcement Administration – Washington Field Division; and Harford County State’s Attorney Joseph I. Cassilly.

“Thanks to the collaboration between DEA and our law enforcement partners, Mr. Prather and his co-conspirators will no longer be able to harm our communities with the poison they peddled,” stated Drug Enforcement Administration Special Agent in Charge Ava A. Cooper-Davis.

According to Prather’s plea agreement, as part of an investigation into drug dealing in Harford County, investigators learned that Candis Mack would be traveling to New Jersey on February 12, 2008 to buy cocaine. As Mack drove back to Maryland, Maryland State Police stopped her car on a traffic violation and seized more over pounds of cocaine and $2,600. Mack was arrested and released after posting bond.

From February 29 to March 3, 2008, Prather and Mack discussed by phone the quantity and price of cocaine. On March 5, investigators searched Prather’s residence and seized over 11 ounces of cocaine, a digital scale, a cutting agent known as inositol and over $10,000.

Judge Quarles sentenced co-defendant Candis Mack, age 34, of Joppa, Maryland to 135 months in prison for possession with the intent to distribute cocaine. On April 10, 2009, a jury convicted co-defendants Fernando Alexander Settles, age 28, of Abingdon, Maryland, and Candis Mack’s brother, Winston Charles Mack, age 33, of Edgewood, of drug trafficking offenses and they were sentenced to 240 months and 136 months in prison, respectively. A fourth defendant, Tanya Valencia Mack is awaiting trial.

United States Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein thanked the Harford County Task Force for its assistance in the investigation of this Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force case and commended Assistant United States Attorney Christopher J. Romano, who prosecuted the case.