Lafayette Resident Sentenced To 120 Months In Prison For His Role In A Drug Conspiracy Distribution Ring

LAFAYETTE, La. –United States Attorney Stephanie A. Finley announced today that John Cedric Dauphin, 36, of Lafayette, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Elizabeth Foote to 120 months in prison and five years of supervised release for conspiracy with intent to distribute and distribution of cocaine.  Dauphin pleaded guilty on October 17, 2013.

Dauphin along with co-defendants German Rodriguez, Tyrone Thibeaux, Fernellis Woods, and Glenn Charles, were indicted in April 2012 for conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute cocaine between August 2008 and April 2011.  Depending on their respective roles, they participated in distributing between 5 and 10 kilos of cocaine. According to evidence presented at the guilty pleas, Rodriguez supplied multi-kilogram quantities of cocaine from Houston to a large scale Lafayette drug trafficking/distribution organization that included Dauphin, Charles, Woods and Thibeaux.

Rodriguez, Charles, Thibeaux and Woods previously pleaded guilty to conspiracy with intent to distribute and distribution of cocaine.  Rodriguez is scheduled for sentencing March 14, 2014, and Thibeaux is scheduled for sentencing on April 11, 2014.  Woods was sentenced on October 18, 2013, to 135 months in prison with five years of supervised release, and Charles was sentenced on December 12, 2013, to 71 months in prison with five years of supervised release.

The Drug Enforcement Administration, the Carencro Police Department, the Houston Texas Police Department and the Waller County Texas Sheriff’s Office participated in this OCDETF investigation.  Assistant U.S. Attorney Howard C. Parker prosecuted the case.

The defendants were arrested as part of an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF) investigation.  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.