NEWPORT NEWS (AP) -- A Newport News man has been sentenced to 25 years in federal prison for his role in a drug trafficking operation.
38-year-old Kevin Gerald Forde was sentenced Thursday in federal court in Newport News for his November 2012 conviction for drug conspiracy, cocaine distribution and illegal use of a communication device.
Prosecutors say that from 1999 to 2011, Forde was part of a network that supplied drugs to the Thug Relations street gang, which operated primarily in the Aqueduct and Warwick Lawn apartment complexes. The say Forde bought and sold cocaine and crack cocaine and participated in hundreds of transactions.
According to court documents and evidence presented in court, Forde and others dealt in illegal drugs from New York, California, Georgia, North Carolina and Texas.
AP-WF-03-22-13 0721GMT
