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AUSA VICKIE E. LEDUC at 410-209-4885

September 7, 2006

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

BALTIMORE MAN SENTENCED TO OVER 12 YEARS
FOR DISTRIBUTING HEROIN

Defendant Had Three Prior Drug Convictions

BALTIMORE, Maryland - Michael Thomas, age 33, of Baltimore, was sentenced today to 151 months in prison, followed by 5 years of supervised release for conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute heroin, announced United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Rod J. Rosenstein. U.S. District Judge J. Frederick Motz enhanced Thomas’ sentence upon determining that Thomas is a career offender, based on three prior felony convictions for drug-related offenses.

According to the statement of facts presented at his guilty plea on June 22, 2006, Baltimore City police officers observed a man enter a home on Cliftmont Avenue on February 24, 2005 carrying a weighted down black plastic bag. The man left the home two hours later without the bag. Thomas was observed standing at the front door. As officers approached the residence, Thomas quickly shut the door. Officers made a forced entry and followed Thomas who ran up the stairs to a bathroom, where he was found flushing the toilet. A plastic zip bag was floating in the toilet as the officers placed Thomas under arrest. Officers seized drug paraphernalia at the home, including numerous metal strainers and spoons with heroin residue, a digital scale with heroin residue, two plastic bags with heroin residue, a plastic bag containing a common heroin cutting agent, empty gelcaps and sandwich bags for packaging, a capping tray, and a bottle of quinine (also a heroin cutting agent).

United States Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein thanked the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the Baltimore City Police Department for their investigative work in this case. Mr. Rosenstein also praised Assistant United States Attorney Christine Manuelian, who prosecuted the case.

This page last modified—September 7, 2006