South L.A. gang leader gets life in prison for drug trafficking

A federal judge Friday sentenced a South Los Angeles gang leader to life in prison without parole, capping a years-long investigation into a large drug-trafficking operation run out of Los Angeles and San Bernardino counties.

Alphonso Eugene Foster, 41, is the second man handed a life sentence in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles for leading a PCP manufacturing conspiracy that produced hundreds of gallons of the drug for distribution in Southern California and on the East Coast.

Ten others were convicted on various drug charges and have been given sentences ranging from four to 25 years in prison.

Prosecutors said Foster and convicted co-defendant and gang leader Kim Vernell Walker, 47, ran a trafficking operation which included a home in Landers purchased by a straw buyer that was turned into a large-scale lab for cooking PCP.

Authorities raided the place in 2007 and seized more than $1 million worth of PCP. Foster and Walker hid their operation, in part, by opening a graffiti removal business in San Bernardino which acted as a front for buying the precursor chemicals needed to make PCP.

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-- Mike Anton

Comments

[John]

Nice! More garbage off the street.

[LA Beat]

The article's title states that this now convicted felon is a gang leader, but never mentions which gang he controled. That would be worth printing as well.

[blac man]

they put some extras on the story...the dude is from watts,they were creating the drugs in Landers which is what we call buttphuk county(far as heck from home!),and he was operating out of San Berdoo...why the "South L.A." tag?

[Mason]

Thanks judge now we can pay for his free care for the next 60 years when a bullet would have done better.