Two Birmingham brothers were sentenced to at least a decade in prison each Thursday for their roles in trafficking methamphetamine supplied by a Mexican cartel.

U.S. District Judge Karon O. Bowdre handed down the sentences for Diontez Jamel Moore, 31, and Daeshuan Nathaniel Moore, 28, according to an announcement by U.S. Attorney Jay E. Town, U.S. Postal Inspector in Charge Adrian Gonzalez and Alabama Law Enforcement Agency Secretary Hal Taylor.

Bowdre sentenced Diontez Moore to 24 years and four months in federal prison for conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine. Daeshuan Moore received 10 years for possessing with intent to distribute 500 grams or more of methamphetamine in Jefferson County on May 3, 2018. Both men pleaded guilty to the charges in November 2017.

State Bureau of Investigation agents arrested the brothers on May 3, 2017 after they fled police and crashed the sedan they were driving into two civilian vehicles at an intersection on Forestdale Boulevard. The brothers and two other people in the vehicles they hit were hospitalized. Agents recovered about 1,100 grams - more than 2 pounds - of methamphetamine from the trunk of the Moores' sedan.

The investigation began when U.S. Postal inspectors and SBI agents began investigating mailings of dozens of packages from Phoenix, Arizona to the Birmingham area in December 2016, according to court documents. The investigation began after postal inspectors in Arizona contacted inspectors in Alabama about a package they had intercepted and found to contain more than three pounds of methamphetamine. The package was addressed to a Birmingham-area home.

Agents identified the person who mailed that package as Deron Lee Green, a former Alabama resident with family in Birmingham who was living in Phoenix. Green pleaded guilty to the trafficking conspiracy in October. In June, Judge Bowdre sentenced Green to five years in prison.

Postal Inspector John Bailey testified during Diontez Moore's sentencing hearing Thursday that Green was responsible for shipping the methamphetamine to Alabama and for the "day-to-day contact with the cartel in Arizona." Green told investigators that the Mexican-based Sinoloa Cartel supplied the methamphetamine, Bailey testified.

On May 3, 2017, postal inspectors in Birmingham discovered an inbound package from Phoenix to a Forestdale address that was associated with a relative of Green's, according to court documents. The package was similar to other suspicious packages investigators had identified.

Law enforcement observed the package's delivery to the Forestdale address, then watched a black sedan, occupied by Diontez and Daeshaun Moore, arrive at the residence, where Diontez Moore went into the garage, retrieved the package and placed it in the trunk of the sedan. As the sedan left the area with Daeshaun Moore driving, an Alabama State Trooper tried to stop it.

The car sped away, leading troopers on a chase that ended when the brothers crashed into the vehicles at the intersection of Forestdale Boulevard and Cherry Avenue, leading to the brothers' arrests. In Diontez's hearing, prosecutors played a police-dash cam video of the high-speed chase along a two-lane residential road and through a construction area on the road, before ending with the crash.

The Postal Inspection Service and ALEA-SBI investigated the case, which Assistant U.S. Attorney Brad Felton prosecuted.

"Postal inspectors are committed to stopping drug cartels from using the U.S. Postal Service to distribute dangerous drugs into our communities," Gonzalez said. "In this case, these suspects sought to put large amounts of methamphetamine onto the streets of Birmingham using the U.S. Postal Service. Postal inspectors, along with our state and local law enforcement partners, put an end to this scheme. I hope the substantial prison sentences handed down today serve as a deterrent to those who would try the same thing."

Bowdre sentenced Diontez Moore as a career offender based on his criminal history, which includes a prior murder conviction and an attempted fraud on the state court following his and his brother's 2017 arrests. The judge imposed the mandatory minimum sentence for Daeshaun Moore, noting that he was less culpable than other defendants involved in the drug conspiracy, and that he has no violent crimes or drug offenses in his criminal history.

"Those individuals who engage in drug trafficking belong in federal prison," Town said. "Postal inspectors work tirelessly to ensure that the U.S. Mail is used only for legitimate purposes and not in furtherance of any criminal enterprise. Their efforts, along with those of the Alabama state investigators, helped put these brothers where they belong."