Rowan County Man Sentenced To Nineteen Years In Federal Prison

GREENSBORO, N.C. - A Salisbury resident was sentenced on April 17, 2019, in federal court in Winston-Salem, announced United States Attorney Matthew G.T. Martin of the Middle District of North Carolina.

The Honorable Thomas D. Schroder sentenced Nekhent Supreme ALI, 37, of Salisbury, North Carolina, to a 235 month term of imprisonment on charges of distributing cocaine base (crack). In addition to 235 months imprisonment, ALI was ordered to serve three years of supervised release after completing his sentence. ALI pleaded guilty in November 2018.

During the spring of 2018 a confidential informant told officers with the Rowan County Sheriff’s Office that ALI was selling cocaine base (crack), and indicated that they could purchase quantities of the drug from ALI. Law enforcement officers utilized the CI to make four controlled purchases of cocaine base (crack) from ALI. The quantity of cocaine base purchased varied from as low as 14.8 grams to as high as 29 grams. The total quantity of cocaine base (crack) purchased from ALI as a result of the four transactions was 69.8 grams.

On April 25, 2018, during a consent search of a residence where ALI was known to reside, officers located more than $1,000 of the United States currency that was utilized to make the controlled purchases of cocaine base from ALI.

Prior to this arrest, ALI had been convicted of multiple counts of felony possession of cocaine, felony possession with intent to sell and deliver cocaine, and felony possession with intent to manufacture, sell, and deliver cocaine.

The case was investigated by the Department of Homeland Security Investigations, the Rowan County Sheriff’s Department Crime Reduction Unit, and the Salisbury Police Department Narcotics Unit. The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Terry M. Meinecke.

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