Vallejo man sentenced to 5 years for drug-trafficking conspiracy

A Vallejo man was sentenced Thursday to five years in prison for his role in what federal officials described as a “large-scale” cocaine and heroin trafficking conspiracy.

Michael Hampton, 57, heard a judge in a Sacramento courtroom hand down the prison term for conspiracy to distribute and possess, with intent to distribute, at least 500 grams, or well more than a pound, of cocaine, said Phillip A. Talbert, U.S. Attorney for the Department of Justice's Eastern District of California.

According to court records, Hampton is among the 15 federal defendants arrested in 2021 and charged in a 45-count indictment for trafficking narcotics as part of a DEA-led multi-agency operation targeting cocaine and heroin traffickers in North Sacramento.

Hampton was intercepted trafficking a kilogram. or 2.2 pounds, of powder cocaine during a 30-day wiretap, Talbert noted in a press statement released Friday.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Cameron L. Desmond and Aaron D. Pennekamp prosecuted the case.

It stems from an investigation by the Drug Enforcement Administration, the FBI, Homeland Security Investigations, the U.S. Marshals Service, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, the U.S. Forest Service, the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, the Bureau of Land Management, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, the California Department of Justice, the California Highway Patrol, the Sacramento County Sheriff's Office, and the Sacramento Police Department, said Talbert.