Braun Tarone Evans Dabbs Gets 20 Years for Crack Conspiracy

Braun Tarone Evans Dabbs, 33, of Greeneville, Tenn., is headed back to federal prison for 20 years after being caught red-handed in a massive crack cocaine conspiracy that flooded East Tennessee with nearly 4.5 kilograms of the drug. On February 14, 2017, U.S. District Judge J. Ronnie Greer handed down a 210-month sentence for Dabbs’ role in distributing crack cocaine — a sentence made even steeper by the fact he was already on federal supervised release for a prior conviction.

Dabbs wasn’t just skimming the edges of the drug trade — he was deep in. According to his plea agreement filed in U.S. District Court, he admitted responsibility for approximately 4,500 grams (4.5 kilograms) of crack cocaine distributed between October 1, 2013, and July 21, 2015. During that stretch, Dabbs was supposed to be abiding by the terms of supervised release after serving time for a previous federal crack cocaine conviction. Instead, he returned to the streets to sell — and sell big.

The hammer came down when Dabbs sold 52 grams of crack on one occasion and 69.88 grams on another in June 2015 — both transactions made to undercover operatives working with law enforcement. Those controlled buys sealed his fate, proving he hadn’t just dabbled, but actively re-engaged in high-volume drug trafficking while under federal supervision.

Dabbs’ criminal history isn’t minor. He was first convicted in 2009 on federal crack cocaine conspiracy charges and sentenced to 42 months. A change in sentencing laws later reduced that term to 34 months. But freedom didn’t stick. Within months of release, he slipped back into the same deadly trade — fueling addiction, violence, and instability across the region.

The investigation that brought Dabbs down was a coordinated strike led by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Johnson City Police Department, and the Third District Judicial Drug Task Force. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Nick Regalia, Wayne Taylor, and Christian Lampe, who hammered home the message that repeat offenders — especially those who betray court-ordered supervision — will face maximum consequences.

This case was part of the Department of Justice’s Organized Crime and Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF) program, the federal government’s primary weapon against major drug networks. Since 1982, OCDETF has targeted the kingpins and supply chains behind America’s drug crisis. Dabbs may not have run a cartel, but his operation fed the epidemic — and now, he’ll spend two decades paying for it behind bars.