RALEIGH, N.C. (WNCN) — Two Rocky Mount gang members will each spend more than a decade in prison after pleading guilty to drug charges.

The U.S. Department of Justice says Benjamine Moss Jr., 31, and Dentrez Randell Thomas, 28, were sentenced Friday by U.S. District Judge James C. Dever III.

Moss was sentenced to 20½ years in prison while Thomas received over 12 years in prison.

Both pleaded guilty to conspiring to distribute heroin, fentanyl and marijuana, while Moss also pleaded guilty to an additional charge of possessing a firearm in furtherance of drug trafficking.

Prosecutors say both men were involved in a violent drug trafficking organization with ties to the United Blood Nation gang.

They say a federal investigation found that Moss and Thomas were the primary distributors of those drugs in Nash and Edgecombe counties, and that gang leader Tyrone Foreman obtained heroin and fentanyl by the kilogram from various sources of supply. 

The investigation culminated when more than 3,500 dosage units of a heroin and fentanyl mixture were seized from Thomas and Foreman during a traffic stop in December 2020 on Interstate 95 in Maryland while they returned from a meeting with a New York-based drug supplier, prosecutors said.

Foreman is awaiting sentencing.