Career Offender Sentenced to nearly 18 Years in Prison for Drug Trafficking Conspiracy

BIRMINGHAM,  Ala.  –  A federal judge today sentenced a career offender to nearly 18 years in prison for conspiracy to distribute  methamphetamine, announced  U.S. Attorney  Prim F. Escalona and  Drug Enforcement Administration Assistant Special Agent in Charge  Towanda Thorne-James.

U.S. District Court Judge Liles C. Burke sentenced Christopher Lane, 47, of Talladega, for  conspiracy to distribute more than 500 grams of  methamphetamine.  Lane pleaded guilty in September  2021. Lane is a career offender based on prior felony convictions.  The sentence  pronounced today reflected his status as a Career Offender. 

In August 2019, a federal grand jury charged Lane and others in a multi-count indictment with participating in a drug trafficking organization that transported heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine, and fentanyl from Mexico to Talladega, Alabama for distribution between May 2017 and July 2019.

DEA investigated the case along with the Talladega County Drug Task Force.  Assistant U.S. Attorneys Blake Milner and Austin Shutt prosecuted the case.

This investigation is part of the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF). OCDETF is an independent component of the U.S. Department of Justice.  Established in 1982, OCDETF is the centerpiece of the Attorney General’s strategy to combat transnational-organized-crime and to reduce the availability of illicit narcotics in the nation by using a prosecutor-led, multi-agency approach to enforcement.  OCDETF leverages the resources and expertise of its partners in concentrated, coordinated, long-term enterprise investigations of transnational organized crime, money laundering, and major drug trafficking networks.