MAN GETS 20 YEARS IN PRISON ON DRUG CHARGES

CHESAPEAKE -- A 36-year-old San Diego man was sentenced to 20 years in
prison Tuesday for transporting drugs by commercial airline into Chesapeake.

Police seized 12.9 pounds of marijuana and $203,108 when they arrested
Darrell D. Bell and an accomplice at a Greenbrier extended-stay hotel in
late 2003. Bell told police he had transported 220 pounds of marijuana and
another 108 pounds on other occasions.

"I'd just like to apologize to the court and the people of Virginia for the
mistake I've made," said Bell, a father of three and former employee at an
elementary school in San Diego.

Circuit Judge V. Thomas Forehand Jr. sentenced Bell on charges of
transporting drugs into the commonwealth, possession of marijuana with the
intent to distribute, possession of a firearm with drugs and conspiracy.
His accomplice, Kevin Allen Key, 36, of Las Vegas, is scheduled to be
sentenced June 3.

The two men flew into Hampton Roads from San Diego, rented two rooms at the
Sun Suites of Chesapeake at 1520 Crossways Blvd., and sold drugs in pound
quantities, according to Assistant Commonwealth's Attorney Kenneth A.
Phillips, who prosecuted both cases. They kept the drugs in one room and
the money in another.

"He stated that he pushed in the bad neighborhoods," Phillips said. "He
stated that he sold nothing smaller than a pound."

Although airport security was increased after Sept. 11, 2001, Bell admitted
to police that they transported the drugs by air, according to the prosecution.

Jo Anne Spencer, Bell's attorney, said her client wasn't the leader of the
drug scheme. She would have argued at trial that her client actually
purchased the drugs here, she said.

He failed to make money during his first trip to Chesapeake, she said in
arguing for a lighter sentence. Bell had lived an exemplary life before the
crime, Spencer said.

"We're talking about marijuana," Spencer told the judge. "We're not talking
about cocaine or heroin. We're not talking about any hard-core, addictive
drugs."

Forehand called the crime a "rather elaborate and sophisticated criminal
enterprise," and one of the biggest of its kind he's seen. He dismissed the
notion that marijuana is a lesser drug.

"It's still illegal," Forehand said. "It's still deemed by many experts as
harmful. ... "

Bell was a "noon-duty assistant" at Knox Elementary in San Diego, a
position that required him to organize and oversee children at lunch and
recreation, said Steven Baratte, a school spokesman.

Bell entered a conditional guilty plea in February, a move that will allow
him to appeal an earlier court ruling by another judge concerning the
suppression of evidence in his case. His accomplice, Key, was convicted by
a jury in January of conspiracy and possession with the intent to
distribute marijuana.

The jury recommended a sentence of 31 years in prison for Key.