NATCHEZ, MISS. (KLFY) – A Louisiana man has been sentenced following his involvement in an interstate drug trafficking operation.

On Nov. 15, Clifford Payne, Jr., 52, of Vidalia, La., was sentenced to 14 months in prison for his participation in an interstate drug trafficking operation distributing kilogram quantities of drugs in the Natchez, Miss. area from 2016 through 2018, according to a press release from the Department of Justice U.S. Attorney’s Office Southern District of Mississippi.

According to the press release, Payne was indicted by a federal grand jury and pled guilty to the use of a telephone in furtherance of a drug crime. Court records show that Payne had several phone conversations with Kevin Singleton to obtain cocaine for further distribution.

Singleton was sentenced to 35 years in prison in 2021, the press release said.

The press release also said that Payne was previously convicted of aggravated battery with a dangerous weapon in 1987 and receiving stolen property in 1990, both in Ferriday, La.

This Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces case is a result of an extensive investigation by the Drug Enforcement Administration, Mississippi Bureau of Narcotics, Adams County Sheriff’s Office, U.S. Postal Inspection Service, Mississippi Highway Patrol, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, and the Peral Police Department.

This case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Carla J. Clark.