TEN MORE SENTENCED FOLLOWING CONVICTIONS FOR ROLE IN STEROIDS/HYDROCODONE/ECSTASY DISTRIBUTION CELL OPERATING IN HARRIS AND FT. BEND COUNTIES

(HOUSTON) – Ten more members of Charles Brock Falkenhagen’s steroid/hydrocodone/ecstasy distribution cell have been sentenced, United States Attorney José Angel Moreno and acting Special Agent in Charge Thomas Hinojosa of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) announced today.

U.S. District Court Judge Lynn Hughes handed down sentences ranging from time served in pretrial detention (one day to 16 months) to 46 months imprisonment. The 10 persons sentenced today were previously convicted for various offenses arising from their respective roles in a large scale multi-drug distribution group which operated in Harris County and Ft. Bend County, Texas, for several years beginning in 2001, lead by Charles Brock Falkenhagen. The investigation leading to the charges against Falkenhagen and these defendants as well as others was the result of an investigation conducted over a four-year-period beginning in 2006 by the DEA and Ft. Bend County Sheriff’s Office and their Narcotics Task Force with the assistance of the Food and Drug Administration - Office of Criminal Investigations and Internal Revenue Service - Criminal Investigations.

Judge Hughes sentenced Falkenhagen on Sept. 20, 2010, to 30 months in federal prison. The distribution cell  operated for a period of six to seven years beginning in 2001 until September 2007 distributing hydrocodone, anabolic steroids and ecstasy. Falkenhagen was arrested May 19, 2009, prior to a joint roundup which resulted in the arrest of more than 60 co-conspirators in Ft. Bend and Harris County, many of whom were buying and reselling drugs obtained from Falkenhagen. Several of the defendants sentenced today provided Falkenhagen and others with ecstasy and hydrocodone.
   

• Nicole Sutton Ferguson, 37, Missouri City, was sentenced to 46 months in prison, followed by a three-year-term of supervised release. She has been detained in federal custody since her arrest May 29, 2009. Ferguson was described by Judge Hughes during the sentencing hearing as a drug supplier of hydrocodone for Falkenhagen and his buyers.
• Richard Scott King, 38, Atlanta, Ga., was sentenced to six months in prison to be followed by a three-year-term of supervised release. On bond since his May 27, 2009, arrest, King will be permitted to remain on bond pending the issuance of an order to surrender to a Bureau of Prisons facility to be designated in the  near future.

Eight others previously convicted who have been in federal custody without bond for as much as almost 16 months were all sentenced to the time served in custody to be followed by a three-year-term of supervised release. Those defendants are:

Convicted of conspiring to possess with intent to distribute hydrocodone after pleading guilty

• Kevin Drew Detlefs, 33, Baton Rouge, La.
• Carl Lane, 40, Houston
• Ryan Wade Glasscock, 29, Houston
• Roland Hatch, 41, Dayton, Ohio
• Blake K. Rudolph, 29, Austin, Texas
• Matthew Simmons, 29, Houston 

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