BATON ROUGE – United States Attorney Kurt Wall announced the sentencing of Michael D. Nelson, age 56 of Independence, Louisiana, in connection with an extensive federal, state, and local investigation aimed at a large-scale cocaine and heroin trafficking network based in East Baton Rouge and Ascension Parishes.
U.S. District Court Judge John deGravelles sentenced Nelson to 235 months in federal prison following his convictions of conspiracy to distribute and to possess with intent to distribute cocaine and methamphetamine. The Court further sentenced Nelson to serve five years of supervised release following his term of imprisonment. In imposing Nelson’s prison term, the Court found that from approximately July 2017 through February 2018, Nelson ran a drug trafficking business and, pending trial, obstructed justice, made false statements to law enforcement, and threatened a witness. In total, the Court found Nelson responsible for ten kilograms of cocaine and over 280 grams of methamphetamine.
According to admissions made as part of his guilty plea, Nelson was associated with Travis James, who led a group of co-conspirators, namely Troy James, Joshua Mansion, Kim Murphy, Yascia LaFrance, Belinda Carter, Cornelius Carter, and others in a venture to obtain kilograms of cocaine from various sources in Houston, Texas, and transport said cocaine to stash houses located in Baton Rouge and Prairieville. Some amounts of cocaine were broken down for distribution to others, including Nelson, while other amounts were converted by James into crack cocaine for sale to others…