HOPEWELL, Va. (WRIC) — A Hopewell man who took part in a drug trafficking conspiracy involving between 50 and 150 kilograms of cocaine was sentenced to 16 years in prison on Friday.
According to the U.S. Department of Justice, 51-year-old Cleveland Lamont Parson was sentenced to 16 years in prison on Friday, Aug. 23, for conspiracy to distribute and possess with the intent to distribute five kilograms or more of cocaine throughout the Tri-Cities area.
The charges are in connection to a multi-year cocaine trafficking conspiracy in which Parson and his co-conspirator reportedly distributed between 50 and 150 kilograms of cocaine. The co-conspirator, 39-year-old Aaron Larde Heath of Chesterfield County, previously pleaded guilty to similar charges on Dec. 5, 2023, and was sentenced to 15 years in prison on May 3.
Court documents state that Parson and Heath, with the help of multiple other co-conspirators, brokered the purchase of large amounts of cocaine from various sources, including Virginia, North Carolina and Mexico. This was done from at least May 2021 through October 2023. Parson’s home in Hopewell was used as a “stash house,” according to the DOJ, where cocaine was distributed, stored and transferred.