NEW ORLEANS, LA - U.S. Attorney Duane A. Evans announced today that JAMAR RUCKER, age 45, a resident of Houston, Texas, was sentenced on Wednesday, December 8, 2021 to 78 months in prison, four years of supervised release, and a $100 special assessment fee by U.S. District Judge Jane Triche Milazzo for possessing with intent to distribute 40 grams or more of a mixture or substance containing a detectable amount of N-phenyl-N-[1-(2-phenylethyl)-4-piperidinyl] propanamide, that is, fentanyl, a Schedule II drug controlled substance, in violation of Title 21, United States Code, Sections 841(a)(1) and 841(b)(1)(B).
According to court records, Special Agents with the Federal Bureau of Investigation developed evidence that RUCKER intended to travel to the New Orleans area on Jan. 10, 2018, to supply a quantity of narcotics to his New Orleans-based customer, Arthur Johnson. RUCKER had previously delivered kilogram quantities of cocaine and heroin to Johnson in New Orleans.
RUCKER had planned to meet Johnson on the evening of Jan. 10, 2018, in the parking lot of Clearview Shopping Center in Metairie, Louisiana. That night, agents established surveillance at the entrance of Clearview Shopping Center. Agents positively identified RUCKER as he drove into the parking lot in a silver Mazda MZ6. Once RUCKER pulled into a parking spot on the third level of the garage, he exited his car, walked to the passenger side, and began to remove a black laptop bag from the car. Agents approached RUCKER. Upon seeing the agents, RUCKER dropped the bag back into the car. Agents detained RUCKER. Inside of the laptop bag, agents recovered four individually wrapped packages, weighing a total gross weight of 4515.5 grams, and a total net weight of just less than 4 kilograms. The packages contained a mixture or substance containing a detectable amount of N-phenyl-N-[1-(2-phenylethyl)-4-piperidinyl] propanamide, that is, “fentanyl." RUCKER knowingly and voluntarily possessed the fentanyl with intent to distribute to Johnson.
Johnson and seven other codefendants were charged in 2018 in a separate case with conspiring to distribute heroin in the New Orleans and Baton Rouge areas. Seven of these defendants, including Johnson, pleaded guilty to drug offenses in that case. RUCKER pleaded guilty in this case on December 4, 2018.
U.S. Attorney Evans praised the work of the FBI’s New Orleans Gang Task Force in investigating this matter. Assistant United States Attorney David Howard Sinkman is in charge of the prosecution.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
