Jihad Coles will have to serve his federal sentence after he finishes serving time on state charges.
NEWARK -- The leader of a crack cocaine distribution ring in Newark will spend more than 14 years in prison, following his sentencing Monday in federal court on drug distribution charges, federal prosecutors said.
Jihad Coles, 30, was sentenced to 176 months in prison, to be served after he completes a sentence he is serving on state charges.
A member of the Grape Street Crips, Coles, also known as "Half Dead," signed a guilty plea in July that he conspired to distribute hundreds of grams of cocaine at the Mildred Terrell Home public housing complex in Newark, said the office of U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman.
He was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Esther Salas.
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Once he is finished with his prison term, Coles will be subject to five years of supervised release, Fishman's office said.
In signing a guilty plea, Coles was spared a possible life sentence, the maximum that could have been handed down on the conspiracy charge.
Coles was among a group of 50 alleged members of the Grape Street Crips who were charged with selling drugs, physical assaults and threatening witnesses in May 2015.
The charges against Coles were the result of a long-running investigation led by the Drug Enforcement Administration and the FBI, in conjunction with the Essex County Prosecutor's Office, the Newark Police Department and Essex County Sheriff's Office Bureau of Narcotics, Fishman said in a news release.
Over the course of the entire investigation, 71 defendants have been charged with federal and state charges, it said.