Final Face Mob Family Member Sentenced

WILMINGTON—United States Attorney George E.B. Holding announced that in federal court yesterday Senior United States District Judge James C. Fox sentenced JAMAL MONTA WATSON, also known as “Gunna,” 31, from Greensboro, North Carolina, to 188 months’ imprisonment, three years of supervised release. The Court imposed restitution in the amount of $2,800.

On March 1, 2009, WATSON pled guilty to aiding and abetting the distribution of heroin and unlawful possession of a firearm by a convicted felon.

The investigation, an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force Operation (OCDETF) investigation entitled Operation Face Off, centered around a violent Raleigh/Durham-based drug organization responsible for the multi-kilogram distribution of heroin, cocaine, and cocaine base. Drug Enforcement Administration agents utilized a wiretap in the investigation. WATSON was the last of the named defendants in a superseding indictment that charged the leader of the Face Mob Family, Donald Stanton Shealey, and members and associates, Gilbert Ernesto Sherwood, Salahudeen Abdul Abdallah, Khalid Usama Abdallah, Tyrone Ricardo Lawrence, Timothy Lamont Hargrove, Samara Scott, and Leketa Smith with a drug distribution conspiracy, drug distribution, money laundering conspiracy and money laundering crimes. The Government also charged a related defendant, Shawn Brown, with engaging in a money laundering conspiracy with Shealey. WATSON’S role was that of a drug distributor and enforcer.

The investigation is ongoing. The law enforcement agencies conducted the investigation include the Drug Enforcement Administration, Federal Bureau of Investigation, State Bureau of Investigation, Raleigh Police Department, and Durham Police Department. Assistant United States Attorneys Michael G. James and Denise Walker are the assigned prosecutors.