Member of National Drug Organization Sentenced
| U.S. Attorney’s Office March 21, 2013 |
NEWPORT NEWS, VA—Kevin Gerald Forde, aka “Miami Kev,” 38, of Newport News, Virginia, was sentenced today to 300 months in prison, followed by 10 years of supervised release, for his participation in a complex drug trafficking organization operating between New York, California, and the Virginia Peninsula.
Neil H. MacBride, United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia; and Mythili Raman, Acting Assistant Attorney General for the Criminal Division, made the announcement after sentencing by United States District Judge Mark S. Davis.
Forde was found guilty by a federal jury on November 7, 2012, and convicted of drug conspiracy, distribution of cocaine, and illegal use of a communication device.
Forde was charged, along with several co-defendants, in a superseding indictment returned on August 15, 2012. According to court documents and evidence presented in court, suppliers of multi-kilogram quantities of illegal drugs in New York, California, Georgia, North Carolina, and Texas distributed cocaine and marijuana to leaders of the long-running organization for further distribution on the Virginia Peninsula. Forde was part of a sophisticated drug network that supplied the Thug Relations street gang, which was located primarily in the Aqueduct Apartments and Warwick Lawn Apartments in the Denbigh area of Newport News. Beginning in 1999 until his arrest in 2011, Forde was a buyer and seller of cocaine and crack cocaine who participated in hundreds of transactions with numerous individuals that involved a wide range of quantities.
This case was investigated by the FBI Safe Streets Task Force, the Virginia State Police, the Newport News Police Department, the Peninsula Narcotics Enforcement Task Force, and Homeland Security. Assistant United States Attorney Eric Hurt and Trial Attorney Louis Crisostomo of the Organized Crime and Gang Section in the Justice Department’s Criminal Division prosecuted the case on behalf of the United States.
A copy of this press release may be found on the website of the United States Attorney’s Office for the Eastern District of Virginia at http://www.justice.gov/usao/vae.