Pubdate: Mon, 12 Jan 2009 Source: Star-News (NC) Copyright: 2009 Wilmington Morning Star Contact: http://www.wilmingtonstar.com Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/500 Author: Veronica Gonzalez PARTNERSHIP CRACKS DOWN ON DRUG ACTIVITY Drug dealers beware: If you've got local Assistant District Attorney Tim Severo prosecuting you, you're probably facing significant time in the slammer. It's been more than two years since Severo was also designated a Special Assistant U.S. Attorney, and since then, countless drug dealers have been prosecuted under federal laws and are serving federal time. New Hanover County District Attorney Ben David and U.S. Attorney George E.B. Holding will highlight the success of the partnership and talk about its future at a news conference Monday. Severo's position has been funded by the Governor's Crime Commission and the New Hanover County Commissioners, according to the U.S. Attorney's office. The federal system allows prosecutors to aggressively pursue drug dealers and criminal organizations as well as net stiffer sentences, Severo said. "You can systematically go after an organization and dismantle an entire organization," he said. "The best handle you're going to get is going after the entire group, not just a portion of it." Recently, an operation dubbed Seven Day Ground netted the imprisonment of 11 people. The investigation has uncovered criminal drug organizations in Atlanta, Georgia, and Texas responsible for importing more than 300 kilograms of cocaine and a kilogram of heroin into eastern North Carolina and Virginia, according to the U.S. Attorney's office. The final defendant, Michael Alexis Covington, a 41-year-old Wilmington resident, was sentenced Jan. 6 to six years in prison for buying cocaine and selling crack as well as illegally possessing a handgun and shotgun as a felon. In November, a 41-year-old cocaine supplier who tried to bribe a cop with drug money while moving drugs from Houston to Wilmington was sentenced to 40 years in prison. Gratiniano Castillo, who had snuck into the country illegally, pleaded guilty to conspiracy and cocaine distribution mainly in Wilmington from 2005 until his arrest in July 2007. Other people caught up in the sting, Lacy Jervay Tate and Shahzan Mathur, both received 20 years in prison while Samuel Cofield was sentenced to almost 18 years in prison, according to the U.S. Attorney's office. Cofield was accused of conspiring with Castillo to move drugs, according to federal documents. Additionally, Shawn Lamar Vincent, was sentenced to more than two years in prison for conspiring to deliver cocaine, while Shannon Cantrell Bullard was also sentenced to five years in federal prison for the same offense, federal court documents show. - --- MAP posted-by: Jay Bergstrom