Hameed Jide Bello, Cocaine Trafficking, Virginia 2016

A shocking case of cocaine trafficking has come to light in Virginia, as 38-year-old Hameed Jide Bello of Fort Washington, Maryland, was sentenced to seven years in prison for conspiracy to distribute 500 grams or more of cocaine.

Bello pleaded guilty on November 17, 2016, and according to court documents, he sold cocaine from May 2015 until his arrest in July 2016. During this time, he regularly sold cocaine in amounts ranging from one ounce to one kilogram to Cristan Taylor of Springfield, who will be sentenced on March 3.

Taylor would then redistribute the cocaine to others in Fairfax County and elsewhere. This brazen operation highlights the need for law enforcement to crack down on cocaine trafficking in the region.

Dana J. Boente, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia, led the investigation into Bello’s activities, with the assistance of the FBI and DEA as part of the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF), Operation Fifty Pounder.

The OCDETF program is a federal multi-agency, multi-jurisdictional task force that supplies supplemental federal funding to federal and state agencies involved in the identification, investigation, and prosecution of major drug trafficking organizations.

Bello’s case serves as a reminder of the devastating impact of cocaine trafficking on our communities. As law enforcement continues to crack down on these operations, we can only hope that justice will be served and those responsible will be brought to account.

In this case, Assistant U.S. Attorney Carina A. Cuellar prosecuted the case, ensuring that Bello faced the full weight of the law.

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