Local News in Brief : 15-Year Sentence for Drug Ring Aid

A Long Beach nightclub owner has been sentenced to 15 years in prison and fined $110,500 for financing and helping run his son’s narcotics ring, which authorities said sold more than $1 million worth of cocaine a week.

Cecil Fuller, 48, owner of Cecil’s Palace, was convicted July 18 of 12 drug-related counts after a four-week jury trial before U.S. District Judge A. Wallace Tashima.

Fuller’s nightclub, a house and three cars, including two Rolls-Royces, which were seized by the federal agents, will now be auctioned.

Fuller’s son, Darren Ray Fuller, 29, faces sentencing Oct. 3.

Prosecutors said an eight-month investigation of the Fuller operation, including the purchase of 22 pounds of rock cocaine and 2 1/2 gallons of the hallucinogen PCP by undercover agents, resulted last September in one of the largest Southern California seizures of rock cocaine.

Of the 18 people charged, 12 pleaded guilty, including Darren Ray Fuller’s grandmother, Annie Fuller, and four were convicted in a jury trial. Charges against two were dismissed.