DEA Informer in Scandal Gets 2-Year Sentence
An Alta Loma man who helped prosecutors investigating the Drug Enforcement Administration’s worst scandal was given a two-year sentence Thursday for his role in a 25-kilogram drug deal. However, he will only have to serve 90 days in a halfway house if he stays out of trouble.
Sherman Lair, 41, who had pleaded guilty to a narcotics conspiracy charge, will be on probation for the remainder of the two-year term under the sentence imposed by U.S. District Court Judge Terry J. Hatter Jr.
The 90-day incarceration is less than the year-and-a-day sentence Lair had agreed to earlier. But Assistant U.S. Atty. Stefan Stein said he was satisfied with the outcome.
Lair assisted in the investigation of three DEA agents who stole drugs from the agency and then resold them. Darnell Garcia, the trio’s leader, received an 80-year sentence. One of his confederates, Wayne Countryman, got five years. John Jackson, the third member of the ring, is to be sentenced later this month.
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