West Side drug runner gets 10 years in prison
A West Side man who admitted to being a drug runner for what authorities called the Antonetty Organization was sentenced to 10 years in prison today by a federal judge.
Carmelo Mercado, 42, of Rhode Island Street, pleaded guilty on July 29 to one count of conspiring to distribute more than 2.2 pounds of heroin. The gang distributed two pounds of heroin a month in the city and suburbs, authorities said.
U.S. District Judge William M. Skretny gave Mercado the low end of the recommended sentence, which could have been as long as a life term, in return for his guilty plea.
Herbert L. Greenman, Mercado's attorney, said his client began abusing drugs as a teenager, moving from marijuana to alcohol to crack cocaine to heroin, and that at the time of his arrest, was using 10 bags of heroin a day.
In the plea obtained by Assistant U.S. Attorney Timothy C. Lynch, Mercado admitted supplying drug houses on West Utica Street, Massachusetts Avenue, Plymouth Avenue, Columbus Parkway and Niagara Street with 50 bags of heroin at a time.
The drug houses, Mercado said, were staffed by him and others from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m., seven days a week.
The drug gang's ring leader, Pedro Antonetty, 28, is awaiting sentencing after he also pleaded guilty.
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