A 56-year-old narcotics dealer caught making crack cocaine in his Stockton apartment was sentenced to 16 years in state prison by a San Joaquin County Superior Court judge, prosecutors said.
Paul Anthony Thomas was found guilty of six felony counts in a June trial. A jury found him guilty on counts ranging from manufacturing a controlled substance to possession of cocaine, methamphetamine, heroin and fentanyl for sale, according to the San Joaquin County District Attorney’s Office.
Thomas was arrested after a police raid at an apartment on Cotton Court in July 2024. Prosecutors said narcotics officers had discovered Thomas was running a lab to manufacture crack cocaine. Officers seized 5.1 ounces of crack cocaine, 4.4 ounces of powder cocaine, 1.8 ounces of methamphetamine, 25.5 grams of heroin and 3.6 grams of fentanyl in the apartment’s bedroom.
“Operating an active chemical laboratory to manufacture crack cocaine while stockpiling a lethal cocktail of heroin, meth, and fentanyl is an extreme threat to public safety,” District Attorney Ron Freitas said in a statement. “This 16-year state prison sentence removes a significant source of poison from our streets and holds a dangerous, repeat offender fully accountable. Our office remains unyielding in our mission to aggressively prosecute those who traffic deadly substances and compromise the safety of our neighborhoods.”
Thomas’ sentence, handed down by San Joaquin County Superior Court Judge Lance Jacot, was longer than it otherwise might have been. Because he had an earlier felony conviction — in 1997, he was sentenced for continuous sexual abuse of a child, according to prosecutors — Thomas faced heightened sentencing for the drug charges.