A La Marque man has been handed a decade-long prison sentence following his involvement in a local crack distribution ring. Ronnie LaShawn Allen, age 45, will serve 120 months in federal prison for conspiracy to distribute cocaine and cocaine base, as announced by U.S. Attorney Alamdar S. Hamdani.
Allen had entered a guilty plea on February 24, 2022, sealing his fate in a justice system that has long grappled with the right measure of punishment and rehabilitative potential for drug offenses. The U.S. District Judge Jeffrey V. Brown also determined that Allen's time behind bars would be followed by five years of supervised release. Responsible for the distribution of over two kilograms of crack cocaine, his activities were confined to the La Marque and Texas City areas between February 2017 and February 2019.
Allen's sentence is the culmination of an investigation spearheaded by the FBI’s Safe Streets and Violent Crimes Task Force, with support from the La Marque Police Department. Currently, Allen awaits his transfer to an undisclosed U.S. Bureau of Prisons facility where he'll begin serving his time. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Kenneth A. Cusick, who has seen the process through from the investigation to the recent sentencing.
