A judge sentenced a repeat felon from Tacoma, who had been out of prison fewer than six months when he returned to drug dealing, to 14 years in prison in connection with a federal undercover sting last year in the Kent Valley.
Cedric Jackson, 35, received the sentence Thursday in U.S. District Court in Seattle from Judge Thomas S. Zilly, according to a U.S. Attorney’s Office media release.
Between August and October of last year, Jackson supplied cocaine that undercover agents purchased on six occasions, according to court documents. When search warrants were executed on Jackson’s home, officers found cocaine, cash and four firearms. The guns included a loaded Taurus .357 Magnum revolver under his bed, and three guns in a cooler in the garage: a Glock 9mm handgun loaded with a 30-round magazine, a loaded Intratec 9mm handgun and a revolver.
Jackson has more than a dozen prior convictions including assault, robbery, burglary, drug possession and bank fraud.
“You have a long history of convictions,” Zilly said to Jackson. “You have been a career criminal in the true sense of the word. But you have so much talent – you could do so many things if you stayed away from drugs and guns.”
Jackson was released from federal prison in March 2012 and within months returned to manufacturing and distributing crack cocaine.
In asking for the 14-year sentence, prosecutors wrote to the court, “A significant term of imprisonment is warranted in this case to protect the public from further crimes of defendant Cedric Jackson. As the criminal history outlined above makes clear, from the time he was 18 to the present, the defendant has engaged in a repeated pattern of criminal activity, including violent crimes and unlawful firearm possession. Of most concern, the timeline above demonstrates clearly that the defendant engages in new criminal conduct as soon as he is released from custody.”
In all, 33 people were prosecuted as part of “Operation Down in the Valley,” the hotspot initiative targeting gang violence, drugs, and gun sales in the Kent, Renton, and Tukwila areas. The initiative took nearly 14 pounds of methamphetamine off the street as well as cocaine, heroin, and prescription narcotics.
The U.S. Department of Justice held a press conference in November at City Hall in Kent to announce the arrests and display guns confiscated during the crackdown.
Officers seized 28 guns and nearly $1 million worth of drugs during the three-month investigation. Charging documents against the people arrested for dealing drugs listed restaurant and shopping center parking lots in Kent, Federal Way, Tukwila and Burien as spots where drug deals were committed.
The initiative is the second hotspot initiative in the Seattle area, following a focus on White Center in 2011.
Agencies involved in the crackdown included the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms & Explosives (ATF) and ICE’s Homeland Security Investigation; the Valley Gang Unit (including officers from Kent, Renton, the Port of Seattle, Tukwila, King County Metro, and the state Department of Corrections), the Seattle Police Department, the FBI and the Washington State Liquor Control Board.
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