MOBILE, AL - A Pensacola, Florida, man was sentenced in federal court on Aug. 27, 2022, for his participation in the Darrin Southall drug distribution organization. Kenneth Jerome Daniels, 49, was initially arrested in November of 2020 when law enforcement officers became aware that he was transporting cocaine obtained from Southall’s organization in Prichard to another conspirator, Derric Kitt, in Pensacola. Daniels was stopped in Baldwin County as he drove two kilograms of cocaine from Prichard east on Interstate 10 toward Pensacola. The drugs were seized, and Daniels was arrested on state charges.
According to court documents, law enforcement officers were monitoring Southall’s phone pursuant to a court order. Calls between Southall, Kitt, and Daniels were monitored and recorded as the conspirators planned for the cocaine delivery. Daniels was released from the state charges on bond, and Kitt and Southall planned to meet with an attorney in Mobile to represent Daniels on that state case. As the investigation progressed, additional evidence was gathered implicating all three conspirators and numerous others. Daniels was accountable for the distribution of 2 kilograms of cocaine and 6 kilograms of heroin.
United States District Court Judge Kristi K. Dubose imposed a sentence of five years in Daniels’s case, to be followed by five years on supervised release after his release from custody. As conditions of supervision, Daniels will undergo testing and treatment for drug and alcohol abuse, and he will be subject to a search of his person and premises upon reasonable suspicion. No fine was imposed but the judge ordered that the defendant pay $100 in special assessments. The judge ordered the forfeiture of a long list of property seized during the investigation.
The case was investigated by the Mobile Police Department, the Mobile County Sheriff’s Office, the Department of Homeland Security Investigations, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the Baldwin County Sheriff’s Office, the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency, the Saraland Police Department, the St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana, Sheriff’s Office, and the Drug Enforcement Administration. Assistant U.S. Attorney Gloria Bedwell prosecuted the case on behalf of the United States.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
