The first suspected members of the Hidden Valley Kings are headed to federal prison.

Seven alleged Kings or associates – Roscoe Abell, Emmanuel Ellis Keller, Jermer Olivette Lowery, Danielle Jermaine Jackson, Chavius Marquette Barber, Lorenzo Lee Johnson, and Alonzo Lee Johnson – were sentenced Tuesday by U.S. District Judge Frank D. Whitney of the Western District of North Carolina for their participation in a drug distribution conspiracy that gripped the north Charlotte neighborhood for years. The defendants were all were born and raised here.

Twenty individuals were charged in the 55-count indictment, and six more Kings defendants were sentenced in federal court on Dec. 10. The remainder will be sentenced on Dec. 11.

Abell, 30, the alleged leader of the gang and top lieutenant Keller, 25, were sentenced to 20 and 24 years respectively. Five associates were sentenced to terms ranging from 10 to 26 years. All of the defendants pleaded guilty to drug conspiracy or distribution as well as federal firearms charges. Prosecutors say the Kings conspired to sell crack, cocaine, ecstacy and marijuana from June 2003 to March 2007 when the federal indictment was charged and several of the gang members arrested by federal authorities.

U.S. Attorney Gretchen C.F. Shappert, who announced the sentences at a press conference with Charlotte Police Chief Rodney Monroe and Nathan Gray, FBI special agent in charge of North Carolina, said evidence revealed in court showed the Kings first organized in the 1990s and profited from the sale and distribution of drugs in Hidden Valley.

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