The State - News from Feb. 8, 1989

A 19-year-old California gang member has been sentenced to almost four years in prison for his role in taking “crack” cocaine to Portland, Ore., from the Los Angeles area. U.S. District Judge Malcolm Marsh also ordered three years of special supervised release following the prison term of Eric Norseweather of Compton. Norseweather pleaded guilty Dec. 9 to a federal charge of aiding the distribution of cocaine in the Portland area from March to August of last year. Norseweather, who was sentenced Monday, was arrested last June when state police found three guns, almost $2,500 in cash and a small amount of marijuana in a car he was driving. Portland police said Norseweather told them on several occasions that he was a member of the West Side Pirus, a neighborhood branch of the Bloods gang that originated in Compton.