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Yasmil "Animal" Minaya, 33, also will remain under supervised release, under the sentence imposed Monday by U.S. District Judge Kevin McNulty in Newark.
There's no parole in the federal prison system, meaning Minaya will have to serve the entire term.
Minaya -- who kept addresses in Totowa and Haledon -- was previously convicted of two counts of conspiring to distribute at least one kilo of heroin following a two-week trial, U.S. Attorney Craig Carpenito announced.
Minaya was part of a network that served as New Jersey and New York area distributors for a drug-trafficking organization, Carpenito said.
The heroin was "usually transported to this area via truck and paid for by the defendants before being sold on the street," the U.S. attorney said.
The drug organization has been linked to several multiple-kilogram seizures -- including 4½ pounds of heroin in March 2015, nearly nine pounds in November 2015, and more than 20 pounds in January 2017, he said.
The Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF) assembled the case, handled by Assistant U.S. Attorney Melissa Wangenheim, chief of the Opioid Abuse Prevention and Enforcement Unit in Newark, and Carpenito himself.
The U.S. attorney credited special agents with the DEA and members of the New Jersey State Police Drug Trafficking North Unit for their work on the case.
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