Johnson confessed that she served as a “telephone mule, passing messages between distributors and sellers.” Mic framed it similarly: “Johnson was convicted and sentenced to life without parole in 1996 for her role facilitating communications in a cocaine trafficking operation in Memphis, Tennessee.”
It was just one mistake, she says. She was just a middlewoman trying to make ends meet and not involved in any of the icky parts of cartel operations, or so Johnson would have us believe.
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Among the acts court documents say Johnson committed are:
The jury convicted Johnson on counts 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 9, 12, and 15 below, which represent all counts on which she was charged:
The Characterization Of Alice Johnson’s Crimes Is Wrong. She Deserved Punishment
It was just one mistake, she says. She was just a middlewoman trying to make ends meet and not involved in any of the icky parts of cartel operations, or so Johnson would have us believe.
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Among the acts court documents say Johnson committed are:
- Allowing cocaine to be exchanged outside her residence (at least 11 kilos on two separate occasions).
- Renting an apartment under the pseudonym Tretessa Johnson (presumably for trafficking purposes).
- Delivering “large sums” of currency to other members of the conspiracy as payment for cocaine.
- Discussing “further cocaine transactions” with other members of the conspiracy.
- Directing another member of the drug ring, Paul Duventre, to make “a series of trips transporting cocaine from Houston, Texas to Memphis, Tennessee.”
- Giving a plane ticket to Houston under a pseudonym to Mose Williams, who had just delivered a Nissan station wagon “containing approximately $1.5 million in U.S. currency” to another member of the operation, for the purposes of receiving another Nissan station wagon filled with 75 kilograms of cocaine.
- Instructing Williams to deliver 10 kilograms of cocaine to another member of the operation, “to be distributed in Marion, Arkansas.”
- Receiving a delivery of cocaine.
- Meeting conspirators at a house while $1.5 million dollars was loaded into a Nissan station wagon.
The jury convicted Johnson on counts 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 9, 12, and 15 below, which represent all counts on which she was charged:
The Characterization Of Alice Johnson’s Crimes Is Wrong. She Deserved Punishment