HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — A Connecticut inmate has been sentenced to nearly eight more years behind bars for running a cocaine distribution ring while locked up in prison.
The U.S. attorney’s office says Westley Northrup, known as “Piff,” was sentenced Wednesday by a federal judge in Hartford.
Prosecutors say Northrup was caught on prison phone recordings in Cheshire Correctional Institution running a drug operation that sold cocaine through a network of dealers in central Connecticut.
Authorities say the 31-year-old former Meriden resident was dealing drugs while serving a five-year sentence for distributing cocaine. He will serve the federal sentence after his state sentence.
A federal grand jury in 2017 indicted Northrup and 10 others in the cocaine ring. He pleaded guilty to a cocaine charge last year.