HAMPTON ROADS, Va. – Tykweyzha Sanders was sentenced in Norfolk Federal Court to 180 months in prison, eight years supervised probation and a $200 fine.
Sanders was charged with Conspiracy to Distribute and Possess with intent to Distribute Methamphetamine and Use of Facilities in Interstate Commerce to Promote Prostitution for helping a California inmate, Foster Gaines, run a drug and prostitution ring while he is behind bars.
Court documents say starting in November 2016, Gaines arranged for packages containing methamphetamine to be placed in the mail in California. Those packages were delivered to addresses to Virginia Beach, Chesapeake and Norfolk. From court papers obtained by News 3, the deliveries from California to the Hampton Roads area went on for a couple of years.
The indictment also tells us Gaines recruited at least two minor females to perform commercial sex acts with customers in rented hotel and motel rooms within the Eastern District of Virginia. Court papers also say a home was rented on 38th Street in Norfolk as a location for some of the sexual acts.
Gaines was in a California jail at the time, but his indictment says Gaines used a cell phone that was illegally brought into the jail to direct both Ryan Little and Sanders and to post advertisements for commercial sex services and to also communicate with commercial sex customers.
Little has pled guilty to charges against him as part of a plea agreement. He was sentenced in a Norfolk courtroom on April 25.
There is no new court date set for Gaines at this time.
