Kingpin in drug ring that used children as couriers gets life sentence

MOBILE, Ala. (WALA) - Convicted drug kingpin Glennie Antonio McGee met his day of reckoning Friday, and a federal judge lowered the boom – life in prison.

For good measure, U.S. District Judge Terry Moorer imposed an additional life sentence for McGee’s participation in a multifaceted scheme to defraud the Internal Revenue Service and the Small Business Administration, and he fined him $10 million.

Assistant U.S. Attorney George May referenced the “reprehensible and heartbreaking part of this case,” a widely publicized raid in which agents encountered a 3-year-old boy wearing a backpack full of drugs. McGee, according to prosecutors, became aware that a “stash house” on Harvey Court in Mobile was about to be raided and launched a desperate effort to have children dispose of the evidence.

May pointed to testimony about the terrified 3-year-old boy’s reaction when agents stopped him: “I’m not a bad boy.”

Said May: “Just a horrifying scene, your honor.”

Moorer emphasized that he believes a life prison term is the only appropriate punishment even if the advisory sentencing guidelines had not recommended it.

“If every federal judge, including myself, was arbitrarily limited to imposing a life sentence in only three cases, I would impose it in your case,” he said.

May told the judge that investigators believe McGee has been selling drugs since shortly after he got out of federal prison following an earlier drug case.

“If there has ever been a drug dealer who deserves a life sentence, it is this defendant, who has gouged a path of destruction throughout the Southern District of Alabama for many years,” he said.

The sentencing hearing came one day after Moorer sentenced McGee’s wife, Echandza Dianca Maxie, to life in prison for her role in the drug-and-gun conspiracy. The judge sentenced McGee’s sister-in-law, Edeszann Dailene Maxie, to 13 years and three months for her part in the fraud case.

McGee called no character witnesses

McGee, too, was supposed to be sentenced Thursday. But after representing himself for months, he told the judge he had hired lawyer Christine Hernandez. The judge reset the hearing for Friday, and McGee acknowledged that he had a misunderstanding about when her representation would begin. She will handle the appeal.

During Friday’s hearing, McGee repeatedly objected to statements by prosecutors, but he called no character witnesses and made no argument about what the sentence should be.

“I don’t think there was any surprise (about the sentence), given the nature of how the trial went and the evidence was presented,” said Jason Darley, who stood by McGee throughout the trial and since as “standby” counsel. “The guidelines were astronomical, and they’re the highest I’ve seen in 21 years.”

The jury found McGee guilty in January of continuing criminal enterprise, conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute cocaine and fentanyl, possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime, possession of a firearm by a convicted felon, and using people younger than 18 in drug operations.

Prosecutors alleged that McGee, 42, ran a multimillion-dollar drug distribution network for more than a decade, selling hundreds of kilograms of cocaine and large amounts of fentanyl in the Mobile area.

May pointed to evidence at trial to demonstrate that McGee sold more than 450 kilograms of cocaine. That is a threshold that triggers a longer prison term under advisory sentencing guidelines. That evidence includes a picture taken from the cell phone of a drug supplier named Gerald Castille showing a long row of boxes of cartel-sourced cocaine. May said the cocaine, sourced directly from Mexican drug cartels, totaled 124 kilograms.

Law enforcement agents stopped the supplier in December 2022 and intercepted a load of cocaine that prosecutors said was intended for McGee. May noted McGee’s own statement to investigators that he was making a profit of $120,000 a month. The judge said he is satisfied that prosecutors proved a cocaine amount well beyond the 450-kilo threshold.

McGee made millions of dollars

In addition to testimony from informants, law enforcement investigators and co-defendants at McGee’s trial, prosecutors presented jurors with clips from hundreds of hours of surveillance. Agents installed a secret camera on a light pole across from the home of McGee’s mother on Euclid Avenue, where he conducted some of his business. Investigators also got permission from a judge to install a closed-circuit TV inside McGee’s Cadillac Escalade. Recordings from that device formed a large chunk of the evidence that the jury reviewed.

Prosecutors reiterated that evidence in a sentencing memorandum that includes a screen grab showing a screen grab from the pole camera showing a child delivering cocaine to McGee in his car.

May also noted that during a period when McGee reported $436,000 in legitimate income, accountants documented $4.4 million I additional earnings.

“This figure doesn’t even account for the stacks of cash. … This shows a massive amount of proceeds,” he said.

May said McGee went to great lengths to protect his ill-gotten wealth. During the same raid where law enforcement officers encountered the 3-year-old boy, the prosecutor said, recorded a phone call shows McGee talking about how he had told an 8-year-old boy to throw a bookbag of drugs over the fence before law enforcement officers arrived.

McGee denied that.

“I never instructed a child,” he said.

U.S. Attorney Sean Costello said outside the courtroom that “the streets of South Alabama are much, much safer” without McGee.

“The drugs, the fraud, the guns, the violence – all of that went into the judge’s calculation here today,” he said. “There’s a reason we asked for a life sentence. … This man is a man who led a crime family in Mobile, and he earned every minute of every life sentence that he got sentenced to today.”

For McGee, it’s on to an appeal.

“There were there were a lot of motions filed before I got in it and, you know, Mr. McGee was prolific with his motions,” Darley said. “I don’t know where they’ll come out. Some of them seem to be much more meritorious than others.”