BIRMINGHAM – A federal judge today sentenced a Tuscaloosa man to 20 years in prison for distributing crack cocaine, announced U.S. Attorney Joyce White Vance.

U.S. District Judge Abdul K. Kallon sentenced ARTHUR SIDNEY PRUITT, 26, on two counts of distributing crack cocaine and one count of possessing crack cocaine with the intent to distribute the drug. The judge ordered Pruitt to serve 10 years supervised release after completing the 20-year prison term.

Pruitt pleaded guilty to the charges in October. According to his plea agreement, Pruitt sold 55 grams of crack cocaine to a police informant on two occasions in February 2010 in Tuscaloosa. In August 2010, Pruitt agreed to again sell crack cocaine to the informant and was arrested when he met the informant in a drug store parking lot in Tuscaloosa to conduct the sale, the plea agreement said.

The mandatory minimum sentence in Pruitt’s case was increased to 20 years because of a prior cocaine trafficking conviction in state court in Tuscaloosa in 2008, according to court records.

The federal Drug Enforcement Administration and the West Alabama Narcotics Task Force investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney John B. Felton and Enid Dean Athanas prosecuted the case.

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