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Press Release

Defendant convicted in Arizona-to-Ohio drug conspiracy sentenced to more than 12 years in prison

For Immediate Release
U.S. Attorney's Office, Southern District of Ohio

COLUMBUS, Ohio – A Columbus man was sentenced in federal court here to 150 months in prison for his role in a conspiracy involving shipments of narcotics from Arizona to Ohio.

 

Dawit Mamay, 24, is one of four defendants charged federally in a narcotics conspiracy involving at least 17 kilograms of methamphetamine and fentanyl. As part of this case, law enforcement seized hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash from co-defendant Ermias Golla’s residence in the Short North.

 

According to court documents, from September 2020 through April 2021, Mamay and others shipped drugs via Priority Mail with false shipper and recipient names and/or addresses. Co-conspirators also shipped drug proceeds back to Arizona from Ohio. The defendants used the United States Postal Service tracking system.

 

For example, one package that Mamay mailed in early October 2020 that was intercepted by law enforcement contained more than 6,000 grams of fentanyl.

 

A second parcel mailed to Golla that month was also intercepted by law enforcement and contained more than 6,000 grams of methamphetamine that lab tested at 96 percent purity.

 

Mamay’s three co-defendants have each agreed to plead guilty to federal narcotics charges.

 

Kenneth L. Parker, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio; Kent Kleinschmidt, Acting Special Agent in Charge, Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Detroit division; and Jeffrey Krafels, Special Agent in Charge, U.S. Postal Service Office of Inspector General (USPS-OIG), Mid-Atlantic Area Field Office, announced the sentence imposed on May 10 by U.S. District Court Judge Michael H. Watson. Assistant United States Attorney Sheila G. Lafferty is representing the United States in this case.

 

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Updated May 12, 2022

Topic
Drug Trafficking