ROCKFORD – A Sterling man who, police say, sold drugs for local cocaine kingpin Adrian Amezola was sentenced Tuesday to 10 years, 9 months in federal prison. 

Nicholas Q. Galvan, 22, pleaded guilty in December to possessing and selling 5 kilograms or more of cocaine.

According to court documents, Galvan, Amezola and Zachariah Randall, 31, of Dixon, sold cocaine in Sterling and Rock Falls from January 2008 through April.

Randall, 31, was sentenced last month to 10 years. There is no parole in the federal system.

Amezola, 28, of Rock Falls, pleaded guilty in December, also to possessing and selling 5 kilograms or more of cocaine. His sentencing, scheduled for Tuesday, has been delayed.

Jim Mertes filed a motion this month to withdraw as Amezola's attorney, citing a breakdown in communication. But Mertes filed a motion Monday to withdraw that request; a hearing is today.

Amezola, long suspected of being "the largest distributor of cocaine in the Sterling/Rock Falls area," had at least 10 people, including Galvan and Randall, selling cocaine for him, at $400 to $1,000 an ounce, investigators say. 

According to court documents, at least one confidential informant told police that Amezola went to Rockford and bought 4 kilograms of cocaine every 2 weeks.

Amezola would cut it with inositol, a vitamin supplement, doubling the weight to 8 kilograms, then would sell or give it to others to sell for him, according to the source.

The investigation into the "Amezola organization," done by the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Illinois State Police Blackhawk Area Task Force, began Oct. 1, 2007.

After using confidential informants, taping conversations, going over phone records, and watching informants make cocaine transactions, the investigation culminated in a search of Amezola's home in Rock Falls on Avenue C across from Thome Elementary School.

In the search, police found about 473 grams of cocaine, two bottles of inositol and equipment used to package cocaine, the affidavit said.

Amezola and Randall were arrested in April; Galvan was arrested 2 months later in Texas.