GREENEVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - A federal judge in East Tennessee has sentenced each of two defendants in a major cocaine trafficking case to 30 years in prison.
The Thursday sentencings of 47-year-old Keith Paris Ruffin of Johnson City and Utica, N.Y., and 36-year-old Ronnie Cooper, also of Utica, follows a co-defendant receiving a life sentence and four others receiving lengthy prison terms.
In addition to convictions on numerous drug trafficking charges, both Ruffin and Cooper were also convicted of money laundering and witness tampering conspiracies.
A statement from the U.S. attorney's office said the convicted conspirators recruited couriers to transport kilogram quantities of cocaine, as well as large amounts of U.S. currency, from Johnson City to Atlanta, Florida, and New York.
