Mario Galli III, 28, of Toms River, admitted in U.S. District Court in Trenton in March that he had the gun and drugs when detectives from the Ocean County Prosecutor’s Office searched his and another home last September.
Detectives seized nearly a pound of the drug and a 9mm FEG Model PGK-9HP gun loaded with 12 rounds of ammunition during the raids, U.S. Attorney Craig Carpenito said.
Galli was on supervised release at the time after serving 30 months for a 2016 conviction for conspiring to distribute more than a pound of cocaine, the U.S. attorney said.
Galli took a deal from the government, pleading pleaded guilty on March 9 to possession with the intent to distribute cocaine and being a convicted felon in possession of a firearm during a drug crime.
In addition to the prison term of 76 months, U.S. Judge Anne E. Thompson sentenced Galli to three years of supervised release.
Carpenito credited members of the FBI’s Organized Crime Task Force and investigators from the Ocean County Prosecutor’s with the investigation leading to the guilty plea and sentence secured by Senior Litigation Counsel V. Grady O’Malley of his Organized Crime/Gangs Unit in Newark.
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