The
United States Penitentiary in Hazelton, West Virginia is a “high
security Penitentiary with a secure female facility and an adjacent
minimum security satellite camp, a division of the United States
Department of Justice.”
This sprawling prison yard was built in
2004. It is located in Bruceton Mills. It has notorious and famous
inmates such as Ali Abdi Mohammed, the Somalian pirate that hijacked
civilian yacht Quest and hostages in 2010. He is serving a life
sentence.
Inside this prison with a population of
2,283 inmates, is inmate number 56118056. He is Nigerian, Felix Okafor.
He was sentenced on April 10, to 263 years in federal prison for drugs
and weapons distribution, sales and money laundering.
Felix, 53, migrated to the United States
in 1981. He was part of the mass exodus of young Nigerians to foreign
nations in the early 80s. Those were the days of uneasy living which
drove young Nigerians to seek survival in faraway lands such as United
States, Europe, the then USSR, the Scandinavian and Asia, specifically,
India. Okafor was one of the young Nigerians privileged to go West in
search of exciting challenges. In 1981, he relocated to Raleigh North
Carolina and settled into a slow paced southern life style. Raleigh is
the capital of North Carolina; a midsised metropolitan city that
struggles with diversity. It is home to the Research Triangle Park, a
sub research layout that was developed in the mid sixties for world’s
biggest research companies in computer science, technology and medicine:
RTP, as it is fondly called, is home to the headquarters of Glaxo
SmithKline, IBM, CISCO Systems, Ericson, BASF, etc.
This metropolis is also surrounded by
America’s best colleges and institutions. One of the colleges it is
privileged to host is Shaw University, the first Black College in
Southern United States, founded in 1865. Okafor got admitted into this
university in the early eighties, majoring in business administration.
After his college education, Okafor
created small businesses through his single life passages: the small
businesses included Laundromat, vending machines for snacks and sodas.
By mid 90s, Okafor married and moved from the city of Raleigh to country
town of Zebulon. He also opened a used car sales shop, shuttling
between his businesses and family.
Mid millennium, Okafor diversified his
business: he purchased a convenience store in another small town,
Benson, located along one of the busiest major network road links of
United States: route I-95 South. From his new location, Okafor provided
neighbours with convenience of daily groceries shopping in his grocery
store, Flying Eagles Groceries.
An anonymous resident of the
neighbourhood described the store and its owner as ‘always selling us
expired groceries and food stuff. He had expired candy bars on the candy
racks and that place seemed unorganised and dirty. The aisles were
always empty, just few items to pick from. There were candy bars that
had expired since 2007. That man was fronting with his store. We
suspected he was cooking something else and selling it. He got caught at
last.”
The daily human traffic activities of the
store attracted neighbourhood curiosity. Strange people came with
expensive cars parked outside. These activities inside a store filled
with expired candy bars and lousy inventories, attracted strangers to
the community at odd hours. Residents became concerned about the safety
of their properties, lives and families with the influx of strange
people to a small store. Soon, the spectacle attracted federal, state
and local authorities who began undercover operations and purchases of
drugs from Okafor’s store. He was under surveillance for 10 months and
federal undercover operations did drug and weapons transactions directly
with Okafor. On Wednesday, January 11, 2011, drug enforcement agents
raided his store and arrested him. Narcotic officers conducted 10
‘undercover drug buys’ of heroin and prescription pills 10 months before
the raid. He faced a maximum of 560 years.
He was tried for four days before a jury convicted him on July 12, 2013 of all 53 count charges.
The department of justice wrote thus on
the conviction, “United States Attorney Thomas G. Walker announced that
on July 12, 2013, FELIX A. OKAFOR, 52, of Wendell, North Carolina, was
convicted by a federal jury of 25 drug and firearms offences including
conspiracy to distribute 100 grams of heroin and 100 kilograms of
marijuana, four counts of distribution of marijuana, six counts of
distribution of heroin, distribution of drugs within 1000 feet of a
school, and 11 counts of possession of a firearm during a drug
trafficking crime.
“During the four-day trial, the
government presented evidence that between on or about November 8, 2011,
through on or about January 11, 2012, Okafor sold various quantities of
marijuana and heroin multiple times to a confidential informant at the
defendant’s convenience store, the Flying Eagle, in Benson, North
Carolina. Okafor possessed a gun in his pocket during each of these
transactions. Additionally, the defendant used the Flying Eagle to cut
and package the drugs to sell. The store was within 1000 feet of Benson
Middle School. Okafor faces a minimum of 265 years and a maximum of 560
years imprisonment at sentencing.
“This case was part of the Project Safe
Neighbourhoods (PSN) initiative which encourages federal, state, and
local agencies to cooperate in a unified “team effort” against gun
crime, targeting repeat offenders who continually plague their
communities.
“Investigation of this case was conducted
by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, the North
Carolina State Bureau of Investigation and the Johnston County Sheriff’s
Office. Assistant United States Attorney Ethan A. Ontjes prosecuted the
case.”
Nine months after he was convicted, Okafor was sentenced to 263 years of prison on April 10.
“U.S. District Judge Malcolm J. Howard
handed down 53-year-old Felix A. Okafor’s 3,157-month sentence in a
Greenville federal courtroom. A jury convicted Okafor of selling drugs
during a four-day trial last July.
Jurors found Okafor guilty of selling
heroin and marijuana to a confidential informant at his Benson
convenience store, the Flying Eagle, which is within 1,000 feet of
Benson Middle School. Prosecutors said Okafor used his store to cut and
package the drugs.
Okafor was convicted of 25 drug and gun
charges, including 11 counts of possession of a firearm during a drug
trafficking crime, six counts of distribution of heroin and four counts
of distribution of marijuana.
Prosecutors said Okafor had a gun in his pocket each time he sold drugs to the informant.”
He was immediately moved to the United
States Penitentiary in West Virginia. He came to the United States as a
20-year-old determined young man in search of best life’s fulfilment for
his family. Thirty three years later, at 53 years, he was sentenced to
263 years in prison.
PUNCH
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