Former Emporia drug dealer Tracy Smith, 45, of Topeka received a 27-year prison sentence Thursday during a sentencing hearing in U.S. District Court in Topeka.
“Ms. Smith bragged about being the biggest drug dealer in the Topeka area,” U.S. Attorney Eric Melgren said in a news release on Friday afternoon. “Her role as the leader of a drug trafficking conspiracy was a key factor in her sentencing.”
Smith was convicted of 17 counts during a jury trial in February. They were: conspiracy to distribute crack cocaine; making a building available to store, use and distribute crack; distributing crack cocaine; and using a telephone in drug trafficking.
Her co-defendant, Dennis Ray Torrance, another former Emporian, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to distribute crack cocaine and was sentenced in March to five years in prison.
Smith was convicted in February during a two-week trial before Federal Judge Richard D. Rogers in U.S. District Court in Topeka, after being indicted by a grand jury in July 2005.
The U.S. Bureau of Prisons will decide in which federal prison Smith will serve her sentence, according to Jim Cross, public information officer for the District of Kansas.
Smith was convicted in 1989 in Lyon County District Court of two counts of selling illegal drugs. She was sentenced to prison on Oct. 31, 1989, and paroled to Shawnee County on Nov. 20, 2000. She was released from parole Dec. 3, 2003.