Oakland

FEDERAL SENTENCE FOR STREET-LEVEL DEALING

A federal judge has sentenced an Oakland man to five years in prison
for his role in an East Oakland cocaine ring that city leaders
targeted under a novel campaign to ease violence.

U.S. District Judge D. Lowell Jensen ordered [Name redacted], 50, to
begin serving his sentence May 3 on a charge of conspiracy to possess
with intent to distribute cocaine. Jensen handed down [Name
redacted]'s sentence Friday.

[Name redacted] and three other men -- [Name redacted], 53, [Name
redacted], 35, and [Name redacted], 29 -- were the first to face
federal charges for street-level drug dealing under a program started
by Oakland police, the FBI and the U.S. attorney's office.

The idea is to charge those arrested for drug crimes with federal
offenses, convictions for which bring sentences of at least five years.

Authorities arrested the four men Jan. 27, 2005, after undercover
Oakland police Officer Marcel Patterson infiltrated the ring by
buying cocaine on the 5900 block of East 16th Street in East Oakland.