Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives

TRENTON, N.J. – A Mercer County, New Jersey, man was sentenced today to 70 months in prison for possessing with the intent to distribute 157 grams of cocaine base, U.S. Attorney Paul J. Fishman announced.

Donald Jackson, 32, of Trenton, previously pleaded guilty before U.S. District Judge Anne E. Thompson to an indictment charging him with possessing with intent to distribute 28 grams or more of cocaine base. Judge Thompson imposed sentence today in Trenton federal court.

According to documents filed in the case and statements made in court:

On Jan. 30, 2014, Jackson, who had been the target of an investigation led by detectives from the Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office, Special Investigations Unit, and officers from the Trenton Police Department, was apprehended in the parking lot of the Gregory Elementary School. A search of his vehicle – in which he had been traveling with two young children – revealed a loaded .45 caliber handgun with a defaced serial number, as well as a plastic bag containing 16 grams of cocaine base. On the same day, a search of an apartment to which Jackson had access and from which he operated his trafficking operations uncovered an additional 141 grams of cocaine base.

In addition to the prison term, Judge Thompson sentenced Jackson to five years of supervised release and fined him $1,000.

U.S. Attorney Fishman credited special agents of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge George P. Belsky Jr.; and detectives of the Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office, Special Investigations Unit, under the direction of Acting Prosecutor Angelo J. Onofri, with the investigation leading to today’s sentencing. He also thanked officers of the Trenton Police Department under the direction of Police Director Ernest Parrey for their assistance.

The government is represented by Assistant U.S. Attorney Molly Lorber of the U.S. Attorney’s Office Criminal Division in Trenton.

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Defense counsel: Patrick N. McMahon Esq., Assistant Federal Public Defender, Trenton