Los Dahda, left, and Roosevelt Dahda, jail mugshots.

One of two Lawrence twin brothers convicted last year of conspiracy in a monthslong trial over a $17 million drug case was sentenced Tuesday to more than 19 years in prison.

Roosevelt Rico Dahda, 33, was among 43 people arrested in Kansas and California and charged in 2012 after a sweeping investigation by the Lawrence-Douglas County Drug Enforcement Unit and the Drug Enforcement Administration. The prosecution, led by Assistant U.S. Attorney Terra Morehead, said the seven-year conspiracy organized by Dahda and his twin, Los Dahda, funneled more than 8,000 pounds of marijuana to Lawrence and the Kansas City area, much of it coming from California.

Investigators seized nearly $17 million in drug proceeds in the case and alleged that the Dahdas worked with other area dealers to buy hundreds of pounds of marijuana from growers in Northern California to be distributed in Lawrence, Topeka and the Kansas City area.

Roosevelt Rico Dahda, left, and Los Rovell Dahda.

On Tuesday, Morehead said a presentence investigation report found about 725 kilograms, or about 1,600 pounds, of marijuana transported from California to Kansas was attributable to Dahda’s directions, and that he served in a managerial role.

“We believe it was entirely foreseeable that his co-conspirators would have been involved in (the transport of) more than 1,000 kilograms of marijuana,” Morehead said. “(Dahda) knew the inner workings of this conspiracy.”

Federal District Judge Kathryn Vratil agreed, noting that the report’s estimations may have been conservative.

“I believe that Mr. Dahda was up to his eyeballs in this conspiracy and he knew exactly what was going on,” Vratil said. “It is my belief the estimate of 80 pounds per crate (of marijuana transported) is reasonably and conservatively reliable.”

Years of wiretaps, surveillance and tips from confidential informants resulted in SWAT-style police units swarming Lawrence one day in June 2012 and arresting dozens of people. Federal investigators raided local businesses and seized guns, property and millions of dollars in drug money.

Vratil ultimately sentenced Dahda Tuesday to 201 months, or about 17 years, in prison for his activities in the drug conspiracy.

Dahda was imprisoned from 2005 to 2010 on a separate drug conviction, and was on parole while engaging in illicit activities involved with the operations of the drug conspiracy. On Tuesday, Morehead said that wiretapping was already underway in 2012 when Dahda filed a document with the court alleging that he was compliant with his parole conditions and should therefore be released early from its provisions.

Vratil said the move was “incredibly brazen” and “sort of (left her) speechless.” For this reason, she also gave Dahda the maximum sentence of 30 months in prison for violating conditions of his parole.

Vratil ruled that Dahda’s conspiracy sentence and parole violation sentence should be served consecutively, meaning that Dahda’s controlling sentence is 231 months — or 19 years, three months — in prison.

Los Dahda is scheduled to be sentenced Wednesday morning.