Southall Conspirator Sentenced In Federal Court

MOBILE, AL - A Houston, Texas, man was sentenced on October 22, 2024, to 105 months in federal prison for his participation in the Darrin Southall drug distribution organization. Michael Dewayne McDaniel, 39, was sentenced to 105 months following his guilty plea to conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute cocaine and conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute cocaine.

Court records show that McDaniel, also known as "Money," met with couriers from Mobile who traveled to Houston to pay for Southall's shipments of drugs and to bring the drugs back to Mobile for further distribution here. McDaniel would collect and count the drug money and arrange for the drug shipments to be concealed in the vehicles used to transport them from Houston to Mobile. McDaniel pled guilty to the charges in July of 2024.

In February of 2022, Southall pled guilty to operating a continuing criminal enterprise with illegal drug distribution activity involving cocaine, heroin, and fentanyl, occurring in Mobile, Alabama; Biloxi, Mississippi; Houston, Texas; and California. Southall also pled guilty to conspiracy to launder drug proceeds and possession with intent to distribute cocaine. He was sentenced in February of 2022 to 35 years in federal prison. More than $3 million worth of property identified as drug proceeds and facilitation property was ordered forfeited to the United States. Southall was ordered to pay a money judgement of $24,000,000.

United States District Court Judge Kristi K. Dubose imposed the 105-month sentence in McDaniel's case for each of the two charges and ordered that the sentences will run concurrently. The prison term will be followed by 10 years of supervised release. McDaniel's supervision includes a set of standard conditions as well as a special condition requiring drug testing and treatment and permitting the probation officer to search his person or property upon a showing of reasonable suspicion that he is in violation of any of the conditions of his supervision. No fine was imposed but the judge ordered the forfeiture of numerous items of property seized during the investigation. McDaniel was ordered to pay $200 in special mandatory assessments.

The Mobile Police Department, the Mobile County Sheriff's Office, the Department of Homeland Security Investigations, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the Baldwin County Sheriff's Office, the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency, the Saraland Police Department, the St. Tammany Parish, Louisiana, Sheriff's Office, and the Drug Enforcement Administration investigated the case.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Gloria Bedwell prosecuted the case on behalf of the United States.

The investigation was part of an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF) operation. OCDETF identifies, disrupts, and dismantles the highest-level drug traffickers, money launderers, gangs and transnational criminal organization that threaten the United States by using a prosecutor-led, intelligence-driven, multi-agency approach that leverages the strengths of federal, state and local law enforcement agencies against criminal networks.