Ace Capone, the CEO of a Philadelphia-based Hip-Hop label was convicted under Pennsylvania’s “Kingpin” law and was sentenced to life in prison today.
Capone, born Alton Coles, was originally arrested and charged in August of 2005, accused of running a $25 million dollar drug ring in Philadelphia, Delaware, New Jersey and Maryland.
During his March 200 seven-week trial, prosecutors accused Cole and his cronies of moving over two tons of powdered cocaine and nearly a half-ton of crack between 1997 to 2005.
Prosecutors claimed Cole concealed his earnings through his businesses, which included a day care center, a water ice stand and Take Down Records, were fronts that helped mask his true source of earnings.
During his trial, prosecutors played a Take Down Records DVD titled New Jack City: The Next Generation which featured Ace Capone playing a drug kingpin involved in a brutal war for the city’s drug trade, along side artists on the label.
It was this DVD, along with the $500,000 in cash, 10 guns and 450 grams of cocaine found in his home in a suburb of Southern New Jersey.
“You never respect life, or the value of it, until it’s taken away,” Coles told Judge R. Barclay Surrick, who sentenced him to life plus 55 years.
“I never thought it would come to this,” said Coles in tears.
Coles was found guilty of conspiracy to distribute cocaine, heading a continuing criminal enterprise that engaged in drug trafficking, conspiracy, wire fraud, money laundering and weapons offenses.