A Georgia man who ran a drug ring out of a state prison is getting federal time for the scheme.
Kevin Bristol Patterson, 35, of Blairsville, has been sentenced to 18 years, four months in federal prison for his role in distributing methamphetamine and heroin while incarcerated at Ware State Prison in Waycross, Ga., according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Georgia.
U.S. Attorney John Horn said Patterson used a contraband cellphone to arrange drug deals on the outside. His co-defendant and fellow inmate Alex Mauricio Altamirano linked Patterson to his drug-dealer nephew, Denis Miguel Pineda.
Patterson used his forbidden phone to introduce a drug buyer to Pineda. In return, the buyer was to give Patterson $500 every time he bought from Pineda. What Patterson didn't know was the buyer was working with police and investigators had tapes of Patterson, Altamirano and Pineda discussing drug prices and times and places for narcotics sales, Horn said.
All told, Pineda sold 649.9 grams of methamphetamine and 334 grams of heroin in five transactions to the buyer from July 2014 through October 2015. Police seized all the drugs before they could hit the streets, Horn said.
Pineda agreed to sell another kilo of methamphetamine on Nov. 4, 2015, but was arrested before he could make the sale. Altamirano promised the buyer he could get the drugs from another source, but he and Patterson were placed in federal custody before they could complete the sale.
On Aug. 10, 2016, Patterson pleaded guilty to one count of conspiring to distribute methamphetamine and heroin and five counts of possessing methamphetamine and heroin with the intent to distribute them.
Pineda, 30, of Atlanta, pleaded guilty earlier in 2016 and was sentenced to 12 years, seven months in prison, followed by five years of supervised release.
Altamirano, 26, of Norcross, also pleaded guilty in 2016 and was sentenced to 10 years, plus five years of supervised release.
"Patterson's determination to commit crimes was not dampened by his incarceration," Horn said. "This case represents another example of the dangers that contraband cell phones inside of the prison system pose to our citizens outside the prison."