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Press Release

Cambridge Cocaine Dealer Sentenced To 7 Years In Prison

For Immediate Release
U.S. Attorney's Office, District of Maryland
Must Also Forfeit His Home, $394,469 in Cash, and a “Party Bus”

Baltimore, Maryland – U.S. District Judge Ellen L. Hollander sentenced Shannon Banks, age 42, of Cambridge, Maryland today to seven years in prison followed by three years of supervised release for being a felon in possession of three firearms and ammunition; and for possession with the intent to distribute cocaine.  Judge Hollander also ordered Banks to forfeit three guns and $389,189 in cash seized from his home and storage unit, nine televisions, jewelry, a Lincoln passenger car, an International “party bus,” $5,280 from a bank account, and his residence on Moose Lodge Road as constituting or being derived from the proceeds of his drug trafficking.

The sentence was announced by United States Attorney for the District of Maryland Rod J. Rosenstein; Assistant Special Agent in Charge Gary Tuggle of the Drug Enforcement Administration, Baltimore District Office; Special Agent in Charge Stephen E. Vogt of the Federal Bureau of Investigation; Special Agent in Charge William Winter of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI); Dorchester County Sheriff James W. Phillips, Jr.; Colonel William M. Pallozzi, Superintendent of the Maryland State Police; and Dorchester County State’s Attorney William Jones.                 

According to his plea agreement, on April 11, 2014, law enforcement executed a search warrant at Banks’ home in the 5400 block of Moose Lodge Road in Cambridge.  During the search, agents seized: 233.7 grams of cocaine; $216,169 in cash; a loaded .45 caliber semi-automatic handgun with an obliterated serial number; a 12 gauge shotgun; and a hydraulic kilogram press.  On April 15, 2014, agents searched a storage unit belonging to Banks and recovered $173,020, a loaded .22 caliber handgun, and another hydraulic kilogram press.  Banks admitted that the cash recovered from his home and storage unit was the proceeds of drug trafficking.

United States Attorney Rod J. Rosenstein praised the DEA, FBI, HSI-Baltimore, Dorchester County Narcotics Task Force, Dorchester County State’s Attorney’s Office, the Maryland State Police, Somerset County Narcotics Task Force, the Worcester County Criminal Enforcement Team, and the Wicomico County Narcotics Task Force for their work in the investigation and prosecution.  Mr. Rosenstein thanked Assistant U.S. Attorneys Seema Mittal and Evan T. Shea, who prosecuted this Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force case.

Updated March 6, 2015

Topic
Drug Trafficking