Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives

COLUMBUS, Ohio – Deandre Forrest, 39, of Columbus, was sentenced in U.S. District Court today to 180 months in prison. A jury convicted Forrest in December 2017 of seven counts related to the distribution of cocaine and crack and one count of possessing a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime.

Benjamin C. Glassman, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio, Trevor Velinor, Special Agent in Charge, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), and Columbus Police Chief Kim Jacobs announced the sentence imposed today by Senior U.S. District Judge James L. Graham.

According to court documents and testimony, from October 2016 until June 2017, Forrest conspired to distribute 280 grams or more of crack cocaine and cocaine. Forrest also possessed three revolvers and two pistols, which were used in furtherance of the drug trafficking.

Trial evidence included video from Forrest’s own home-security camera showing drug trafficking at his residence, and a tape-recorded jail call in which Forrest offered to help pay for a co-defendant’s attorney in exchange for the co-defendant’s silence. Forrest maintained a drug premises on 22^nd Street, for which the rent was always paid in cash. He cooked and sold crack and cocaine from the residence.

Forrest will forfeit his five firearms and more than $28,000 in cash that was seized from the row house.

“Forrest perpetrated a drug-trafficking conspiracy spanning roughly nine months, during which time he manufactured and distributed sizeable volumes of crack and cocaine into the community,” U.S. Attorney Glassman said. “Equally troubling, he possessed a small arsenal of firearms in furtherance of his drug-trafficking operation, most of which were loaded and placed strategically throughout the row house where he manufactured and sold his product. His sentence today reflects the seriousness of his crimes.”

U.S. Attorney Glassman commended the cooperative investigation by the ATF and Columbus Division of Police, as well as Assistant United States Attorneys David M. DeVillers and Noah R. Litton, who are representing the United States in this case. 

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