Cleveland Man Sentenced To 17 Years In Prison For Heroin Trafficking

A Cleveland man was sentenced to 17 1/2 years in prison for his role in a major heroin trafficking conspiracy, said Steven M. Dettelbach, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio, and Stephen D. Anthony, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Cleveland office.

Maceo Moore, 37, pleaded guilty in February to one count of conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute heroin.

U.S. District Judge Christopher Boyko sentenced Moore to 210 months in federal prison. Boyko also ordered Moore to forfeit $9,550 in cash and a 2007 Mercedes Benz.

“This defendant was featured in movies and music videos but now his talents will be confined to federal prison,” Dettelbach said. “He played a starring role in a criminal conspiracy involving heroin and firearms, and for that, richly deserves this sentence.”

“Maceo Moore will no longer profit from harming others by selling drugs as his glamorization of a drug dealer’s lifestyle appropriately ends in a lengthy prison sentence,” Anthony said.  “Thankfully, Moore was brought to justice by law enforcement professionals who work every day to protect the public from violent people like him.”

Moore obtained heroin that was originally shipped from Atlanta to Northeast Ohio, which he in turn sold to others, according to court documents.

Moore and others also planned and committed burglaries and robberies from other drug dealers, customers, and each other. This was done to fund their drug trafficking, to obtain heroin and other drugs, and to collect drug debts, according to court documents.

The men then sold the stolen heroin at discounted prices or used the stolen money to obtain heroin. They identified potential victims through a variety of ways, including targeting those who appeared to have expensive jewelry or cars or by using women to gather information about potential victims and report back to them. They sometimes used firearms or zipties to restrain victims, according to court documents.

According to a sentencing memo filed in the case, Moore told undercover officers in 2012: “I sold drugs, but I started getting more money when I started taking from the drug dealers. That’s how, honestly, that’s how I got my money. I sold drugs, but I always been the hustler, so I sold drugs, I find out such and such over here got it, they doing good, well, we going to get that. Flat out, we going to get it.”

This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Matthew W. Shepherd, Daniel J. Riedl, and Matthew B. Kall, following a multi-year investigation by the Northern Ohio Law Enforcement Task Force (NOLETF).

The NOLETF is a long standing multi-agency task force comprised of investigators from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Cuyahoga Metropolitan Housing Authority, Drug Enforcement Administration, Internal Revenue Service, U.S. Coast Guard Investigative Service, Cleveland Division of Police, Cleveland Heights Police Department, Cuyahoga County Sheriff’s Office, Euclid Police Department, Regional Transit Authority Police Department, Westlake Police Department, and Shaker Heights Police Department. The NOLETF is also one of the initial Ohio High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA) initiatives. HIDTA supports and helps coordinate numerous Ohio drug task forces in their efforts to eliminate or reduce drug trafficking in Ohio.

The investigation was assisted by the Hotel Interdiction Team, another HIDTA initiative composed of members of the FBI, Cuyahoga County Sheriff’s Office, Homeland Security Investigations, and police departments from Broadview Heights, Brooklyn, Brook Park, and Independence.