Arkansas Resident Sentenced to Twenty Years in Federal Prison for Distributing Crack Cocaine

GREENEVILLE, Tenn. – On Nov. 29. 2016, Billy Ray Allen, a.k.a. Grill, 42, of Widener, Ark., was sentenced by the Honorable R. Leon Jordan, U.S. District Court Judge, to serve 240 months in federal prison. Following his prison term, he will be on supervised release for ten years. There is no parole in the federal system.

Allen pleaded guilty in August 2016 to a conspiracy to distribute 280 grams or more of crack cocaine and money laundering. He was the leader of a drug trafficking organization, involving 10 individuals, which obtained powder cocaine in Forrest City, Ark., then transported it to Kingsport, Tenn., where it was “cooked” into crack cocaine and distributed in the Tri-Cities. Allen admitted to being conservatively responsible for distributing between 2.8 and 8.4 kilograms (6 to 18.5 pounds) of crack cocaine. He also utilized the proceeds from the sale of crack cocaine to buy vehicles and real estate, all of which were placed in the names of third parties in an effort to conceal his ownership from authorities. Allen faced a minimum mandatory sentence of 20 years in prison as a result of trafficking in at least 280 or more grams of crack cocaine.

Agencies involved in this investigation included the Second Judicial District Drug Task Force, Kingsport Police Department, Sullivan County Sheriff’s Office, Bristol Police Department, Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco Firearms and Explosives, Internal Revenue Service, and Drug Enforcement Administration. Assistant U.S. Attorney J. Gregory Bowman represented the United States.

This case was a result of the Department of Justice’s Organized Crime and Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF) program, the centerpiece of the Department of Justice’s drug supply reduction strategy. OCDETF was established in 1982 to conduct comprehensive, multi-level attacks on major drug trafficking and money laundering organizations. Today, OCDETF combines the resources and expertise of its member federal agencies in cooperation with state and local law enforcement. The principal mission of the OCDETF program is to identify, disrupt, and dismantle the most serious drug trafficking and money laundering organizations and those primarily responsible for the nation’s drug supply.