Abingdon Man Sentenced to 14 Years for Cocaine Conspiracy

An Abingdon man was sentenced to 14 years in federal prison Tuesday for his role in a cocaine conspiracy.

William Frederick Cornish, 52, of the 3000 block of Cascade Drive in Abingdon, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to possess and distribute cocaine, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Maryland reported.

As part of a federal drug investigation, police conducted a traffic stop on Cornish in April where officials said they found a cardboard box in the back seat of his truck containing 31 bricks, or kilograms, of cocaine, which has a value in Baltimore of $1 million.

The DEA began its investigation into Cornish and three others in August 2015 after a tip from the agency's Los Angeles office that a group was "trafficking large amounts of cocaine into Maryland" to a warehouse in the 7100 block of Golden Ring Road, according a plea agreement.

The suspected drug traffickers were evicted from the Golden Ring location and moved to a new warehouse in the 700 block of Hammonds Ferry Road in Linthicum Heights, where investigators witnessed an alleged drop-off on April 6 and pickup on April 8.

Officials said that on April 8, they saw Cornish pull his silver Ford F-150 into one of the loading bays at the warehouse, where the doors closed, and when he left, police stopped him and a Maryland State Police drug detection dog alerted for suspected narcotics inside.

A search of the vehicle revealed the 31 kilograms of cocaine and a search of Cornish's home uncovered a digital scale, money counter, latex gloves, different colored rubber bands and a radio frequency detector used to sweep people for the presence of wiretaps, according to his plea agreement.

In the basement of one of Cornish's co-conspirators, officials said they found a drug ledger and duffel bags containing vacuum-sealed bags of cash totaling $2.4 million.

In addition to Cornish, the other three individuals were charged with conspiracy to possess and distribute cocaine: Hector M. Hernandez-Villapando, 63, of Hanover; Enixae Hernandez-Barba, 33, of Linthicum Heights; and Hector L. Hernandez-Barba, 39, of Las Vegas.

Following 14 years in prison, Cornish will be on supervised probation for five years, officials said.

Photo courtesy of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Maryland.