Dealer ‘Uncle E’ blames lifestyle on gun violence
TRENTON » Drug dealer Elijah Abdullah, 21, also known as Uncle E, said he had conspired to sell large quantities of heroin in the Trenton area after losing his best friend to gun violence.
Marcus “Marty” Hunter, 16, suffered multiple gunshot wounds, including one to the head, on Feb. 11, 2013. He was pronounced dead on that Beakes Street sidewalk in the capital city.
“The day after he got killed, I dropped out of school,” Abdullah said Tuesday in federal court, hoping a judge would show him leniency. He said the death of his close friend impacted him greatly and plunged him into a life of crime.
Abdullah’s defense attorney Michael A. Armstrong also asked the judge to “allow Elijah to come back into society much quicker” with a minimal prison sentence, saying his client “was constantly surrounded by criminal activity” and consequently sold drugs and became addicted to Xanax to cope with life in the hood.
U.S. District Judge Freda L. Wolfson, however, said Abdullah is “a part of the problem,” adding that “firearms were part of this conspiracy” to sell more than 100 grams of heroin. She hammered Abdullah with a sentence of 74 months in federal prison, calling the six-plus years of incarceration “a substantial sentence for a young man.”
“He left school. He became part of the street life. He has not been employed,” Wolfson said Tuesday of Abdullah, who was arrested last December along with several other codefendants on federal drug charges.
Abdullah’s elder brother, Ishmael Abdullah, was the alleged ring leader behind the drug trafficking organization known as the “Abdullah DTO.” The younger Abdullah pleaded guilty in April to conspiracy to distribute 100 grams or more of heroin. As part of his plea, Elijah Abdullah also admitted to possessing one or more firearms during the conspiracy.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Brendan Day said the younger Abdullah “was responsible for selling heroin at a retail level” and said Elijah Abdullah was also “an essential cog in the conspiracy and vital to its success.”
“You are an adult. You made a lot of mistakes,” Wolfson said Tuesday afternoon to Elijah Abdullah. In addition to sentencing him to 74 months in federal prison, Wolfson also imposed an alcohol and drug test treatment provision.
Another member of the Abdullah DTO organization, Keith “Meech” Hunter, 24, of Trenton, was sentenced earlier this month to 72 months in federal prison — six years of hard time — for his role in the criminal enterprise. Keith Hunter was the brother of murder victim Marcus Hunter, Elijah Abdullah’s best friend.