A Brooklyn-based rap artist who laundered thousands of dollars to pay travel expenses for a drug trafficking ring that operated between the East Coast and Southern California was sentenced Monday to 50 months in federal prison.
Sonja Shenelle Holder, 37, also known as rapper “Sonja Blade,” was sentenced by U.S. District Judge William Q. Hayes.
According to admissions in court and her plea agreement, between 2008 and 2014, Holder laundered $326,545 in cash deposits that were used to pay for travel to and from the New York/New Jersey area to Southern California, where a co-conspirator acquired cocaine and fentanyl intended for distribution in New Jersey.
Fentanyl is a deadly synthetic opiate that can be up to 100 times more powerful than morphine and had been linked to a recent spike in overdose deaths in New Jersey and other parts of the country.
–City News Service