FORMER BASKETBALL STAR CONVICTED

A U.S. District Court jury took little more than an hour today to convict
former basketball star Chandar Bingham of conspiring to distribute more
than 5 kilograms of cocaine. Sentencing for Bingham, who played at John
Marshall High School and Virginia Union University, was set for Feb. 19.
The charge carries a sentence of 20 years to life in prison. Federal and
state special agents led an investigation that broke up a drug ring on Aug.
8. They used wiretaps on the cell phones of Ramon Avila, a 27-year-old
Mexican national in this country illegally, Shawn Lamont Bailey and a third
defendant to learn that a female courier was bringing 6 kilograms of
cocaine to Bingham and Bailey from North Carolina that day. The agents
found the cocaine in a hidden compartment in a sports utility vehicle. They
also seized $28,000 from Bailey, and Avila directed them to almost $165,000
that he had hidden in the courier's Fan District apartment. Witnesses
testified that Bingham was involved in the drug dealing from the summer of
1999 until September 2000, when he went overseas to play basketball. Avila
said Bingham resumed the drug dealing about a month before the arrests.