Sentencing scheduled for Memphis drug gang leader
MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) – A judge has set a sentencing date for the leader of a violent Memphis-based drug organization with ties to Mexico’s Beltran Leyva cartel.
U.S. District Judge Samuel Mays set an Aug. 22 sentencing date for Craig Petties, who appeared in court wearing a tan prison jumpsuit Thursday.
Petties secretly pleaded guilty in December 2009 to racketeering, money laundering and ordering four murders of suspected government snitches and people who were threats to the organization. His plea was not disclosed until February 2011.
Petties ran an organization in which cocaine and marijuana were shipped from Mexico to Memphis in semi-trucks, then distributed for sale throughout the South.
Petties fled to Mexico after his 2002 indictment. He was placed on the U.S. Marshals Service 15 Most-Wanted List before his January 2008 capture.
