Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives

GAINESVILLE, Ga. – Twin brothers, Kecole Dukes and Kemeca Dukes, have been sentenced for conspiracy to distribute and distribution of crack cocaine.

“Crack cocaine continues to be a scourge in our communities – particularly in North Georgia,” said U.S. Attorney Byung J. “BJay” Pak. “These defendants have multiple state convictions for distributing crack cocaine in the past. Their sentences today demonstrate the serious consequences that career drug dealers face when they are convicted in federal court.”

  “The distribution of narcotics, like crack cocaine, fuels violent crime in our community,” said ATF Special Agent in Charge Arthur Peralta. “The Dukes brothers could have chosen a different life path, but unfortunately they did not. ATF will continue to focus on the reduction of violent crime in our communities and this sentence should serve as a warning to anyone who chooses to support or engage in violent crime. ATF, along with our federal and state partners, will find you and we will arrest you.”

According to U.S. Attorney Pak, the charges and other information presented in court: From August 2015 to October 2016, Kemeca Dukes and Kecole Dukes, who are twin brothers, conspired to sell crack cocaine on multiple occasions to informants working for ATF and the Hall County Multi-Agency Narcotics Squad (MANS) Unit. Kemeca Dukes was the primary contact for the informants and sold varying quantities of crack cocaine to them on 10 occasions. Kecole Dukes sold or provided crack cocaine to the informants on three occasions and acted as a lookout for his brother on other occasions when Kemeca Dukes met with the informants to sell them crack cocaine.

At the time, both Kemeca Dukes and Kecole Dukes were on parole with the State of Georgia. Both were convicted in Hall County Superior Court in 2011, for selling crack cocaine and both were released in 2014. Both brothers were back selling crack cocaine less than a year later.

Kecole Dukes, 41, of Gainesville, Georgia was sentenced to eight years in prison to be followed by four years of supervised release on August 7, 2018. He was found guilty on March 29, 2018, by a federal court jury of conspiring to possess with intent to distribute at least 28 grams of crack cocaine and three counts of distributing crack cocaine.

Kemeca Dukes, 41, of Gainesville, Georgia was sentenced to seven years, six months in prison to be followed by four years of supervised release on August 7, 2018. He pleaded guilty to one count of distributing crack cocaine on March 23, 2018.

This case was investigated jointly by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives and the Hall County Multi-Agency Narcotics Squad Unit.

Assistant U.S. Attorney William L. McKinnon, Jr., Senior Litigation Counsel for the Gainesville, Georgia Division; Assistant U.S. Attorney Erin E. Sanders; and former Special Assistant U.S. Attorney and Hall County Assistant District Attorney Juliet Aldridge, prosecuted the case.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office in Atlanta recommends parents and children learn about the dangers of drugs at the following website: www.justthinktwice.gov.

For further information please contact the U.S. Attorney’s Public Affairs Office at USAGAN.PressEmails@usdoj.gov (link sends email) or the internet address for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of Georgia is http://www.justice.gov/usao-ndga.

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