LATEST OF PEMISCOT COUNTY COCAINE DISTRIBUTORS SENTENCED TO JAIL

Men of Steele have kept the U.S. Attorney's office busy this fall.

Eight residents of Pemiscot County, four who live in Steele, have appeared in federal court in Cape Girardeau for distribution of cocaine, said Paul Hahn, assistant U.S. attorney.

All except one had been involved in organized cocaine dealing.

On Monday, Tony L. Brewster, 25, became the latest Pemiscot County resident to be sentenced. Judge E. Richard Webber gave Brewster 140 months in prison for one felony count of conspiracy to distribute cocaine base.

Brewster, who had been convicted in 1995 for cocaine possession, had been arrested after providing crack cocaine to an undercover agent with the Southeast Missouri Drug Task Force.

Another man who worked with Brewster pleaded guilty to distributing cocaine earlier this fall. J.W. Nelson, 43, had sold 24 grams of cocaine to undercover police in February. He will be sentenced in January, Hahn said.

Although Alonzo Jones, 36, had also been charged with selling crack cocaine to undercover police, he requested a trial before a federal jury. After hearing evidence about how Jones had sold $40 worth of narcotics on two occasions in 1998, the jury deliberated for 15 minutes and found Jones guilty. He will be sentenced in late February.

Another Pemiscot County man had pleaded guilty to distributing cocaine at the end of last month. DeWayne Woods, 26, had sold crack cocaine to an undercover agent in Caruthersville in March and April.

"Woods was a participant in a group of individuals who distributed crack cocaine on a regular basis from various locations in Caruthersville," said Michael Reap, U.S. attorney.

Four who had worked with Woods have already been convicted and sentenced in federal court. One of them, Rickey L. Jackson, is currently serving a life sentence without eligibility for parole.