United States v. Claude Dukes, Jr.

Less than two weeks after he completed serving a fifteen-year sentence for armed robbery in July 2008, Claude Dukes, Jr., joined an ongoing conspiracy to distribute cocaine base (crack cocaine) in the Eastern District of Arkansas. Dukes and nine others were charged with conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute and distribute more than 50 grams of cocaine base in violation of 21 U.S.C. §§ 841(a)(1) and 846. Dukes pleaded guilty to that charge one week before trial. In the Plea Agreement, the parties agreed that the conspiracy existed from March 2008 through October 2009, that Dukes…