NEW YORK, Oct. 27 (UPI) -- Hip-hop talent agent James Rosemond was sentenced to life in prison plus five years for overseeing a drug trafficking empire, federal prosecutors said.
Rosemond, 48, was convicted of supervising a crew that shipped thousands of pounds of cocaine from California to New York inside music equipment cases, the New York Daily News reported Sunday.
He was responsible for supplying Brooklyn and Queens with the drug.
"You're the kingpin," Federal Judge John Gleeson said Friday during the sentencing. "Not all kingpins necessarily deserve a life sentence but you certainly do."
Rosemond is scheduled to go on trial next month on murder-for-hire charges in Manhattan Federal Court for allegedly ordering the killing of an associate of rapper 50 Cent, the Daily News said.
Rosemond is also suspected of being involved in the death of rapper Tupac Shakur, the newspaper said
