Leader Of Heroin Trafficking Ring Sentenced To 34 Years In Prison

CINCINNATI – Cornell Clisby, 46, of Cincinnati, who led a heroin trafficking conspiracy in the greater Cincinnati area, was sentenced in U.S. District Court on July 27 to 408 months’ imprisonment. Five other members of the conspiracy, including Cornel Clisby’s ex-wife, have also been sentenced.

Carter M. Stewart, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio, James V. Allen, Acting Special Agent in Charge, Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation, and the Drug Abuse Resistance Task Force (DART), announced the sentences imposed by U.S. District Judge Michael R. Barrett.

A federal grand jury indicted Cornell Clisby and six others in October 2012 following a year-long investigation. All the defendants pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute more than one kilogram of heroin. Others charged are:
Dorothy Clisby, 46, Cincinnati, who was sentenced to 100 months in prison.
Dwayne Williams, 47, Fairburn, Georgia, was sentenced to 120 months in prison.
Michael Williams, 35, Cincinnati, was sentenced to 57 months in prison.
Allen Carnes, 45, Cincinnati, was sentenced to 210 months in prison.
Marcus Gentry, 42, Florence, Kentucky, was sentenced today to 48 months in prison.
Anthony Anderson, 47, Columbus, Ohio, is scheduled for sentencing on July 30.

All seven were arrested following their indictment and all except for Dorothy Clisby have been in custody since their arrest.

Beginning in 2011, DEA agents and investigators with DART identified several houses in the Cincinnati and Lincoln Heights area that Clisby and the co-conspirators used as “stash houses” to prepare and distribute heroin throughout the greater Cincinnati area. In court documents filed with Clisby’s plea, he admitted that he organized and led the distribution process. He also admitted that he was responsible for obtaining the heroin. 

The court concluded that Clisby is a career offender who merits a lengthy sentence. Clisby previously served nine years on a federal narcotics trafficking conviction. The court also noted that Clisby was on parole for a state narcotics trafficking conviction at the time he committed the most recent crime.

 “The illegal trade in drugs has done nothing but destroy inner city neighborhoods, damage the very foundations of the families who live there and stunt the legitimate community activity that might otherwise occur there,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Karl Kadon told the court prior to the sentencing hearings. “It is inherently violent, cancerously pervasive, and contributes nothing.”

U.S. Attorney Stewart commended the investigation by the DEA and agencies participating in the DEA Task Force, DART, Ohio BCI and the New York office of the DEA, who assisted in the investigation. He also recognized Assistant U.S. Attorney Karl Kadon, who represented the United States in the case.

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