As the result of good old-fashioned police work, Shreveport Police officers and agents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) Joint Project Safe Neighborhoods Task Force have investigated, arrested and prosecuted a 24-year-old narcotics dealer to serve twenty-four years behind bars.
Contrell Antoine Coleman was arrested on January 06, 2004, after patrol officers investigated a complaint of an armed individual dealing drugs in the Allendale area of town. Officers and a Shreveport Police K-9 Unit were given permission to search an apartment where the complaint originated. The search revealed approximately 73.1 grams of crack cocaine, a 9mm pistol and an AK-47 style rifle.
Coleman was found guilty in a jury trial in August 2004. On December 16, 2004, US District Judge Tom Stagg sentenced Coleman to 295 months or about 24 ½ years incarceration with the US Bureau of Prisons. Coleman will have to serve most of his sentence, since under federal guidelines parole has been abolished.