Haughton Man Sentenced To 120 Months In Prison For Distributing Illegal Drugs And For Firearms Charge

SHREVEPORT, La. – A Haughton man was sentenced to 120 months in prison and five years of supervised release for a firearms charge and for selling cocaine and methamphetamine with his girlfriend and mother, U.S. Attorney Stephanie A. Finley announced today.

Deshun J. McNeely, 33, of Haughton, La., was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Donald E. Walter to 60 months in prison for one count of conspiracy to distribute cocaine and methamphetamine and 60 months in prison for one count of possession of a firearm during a drug trafficking crime.  According to evidence presented at the guilty plea on October 24, 2013, McNeely, his girlfriend Marenda Smith, and his mother Brenda White, conspired to sell cocaine and methamphetamine in northeast Louisiana from 2012 to 2013.  On May 7, 2013, agents executed a search warrant at McNeely and Smith’s home.  Powder cocaine, crack cocaine, methamphetamine, drug paraphernalia, four firearms and $9,000 were seized.  Agents also seized $36,000 found in a storage unit McNeely and Smith rented.

Smith was sentenced to 30 months in prison and White 24 months in prison on May 22, 2014.  They were also each ordered to serve three years of supervised release.

The defendants were prosecuted as part of OCDETF Operation Styrofoam Cookies.  The Drug Enforcement Administration investigated the case.  The OCDETF program is a joint federal, state and local cooperative approach to combat drug trafficking and is the nation’s primary tool for disrupting and dismantling major drug trafficking organizations, targeting national and regional level drug trafficking organizations, and coordinating the necessary law enforcement entities and resources to disrupt or dismantle the targeted criminal organization and seize their assets.

Assistant U.S. Attorney James G. Cowles Jr. prosecuted the case.