A Colbert County man has been sentenced to federal prison for charges of distributing drugs he received in the mail.

Vennis Minosa Oates Jr. was sentenced Thursday to eight years and four months in prison by U.S. District Court Judge Abdul K. Kallon, Acting U.S. Attorney Robert O. Posey and U.S. Postal Inspection Service Inspector in Charge Adrian Gonzalez announced.

The charges stemmed from an incident in Jan. 2016, when Oates and his associate Keelan Shuntez Robinson were arrested at the U.S. Post Office in Leighton after they arrived to pick up a suspicious package.

Oates, 33, pleaded guilty in January to one count of conspiracy to distribute and possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine, and one count of attempted possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine.

Records show police were monitoring the package after a resident at the address listed on the box refused its delivery. The resident said no one named Jeff Hawkins, the package's listed recipient, lived at the address on Marthaler Lane.

After the homeowner refused delivery, someone who named "Jeremy" started calling the Leighton Post Office about picking up the package, according to Oates' plea.

After the two men were arrested, police opened the package and found one pound of methamphetamine and two pounds of marijuana. Postal inspectors then analyzed inbound and outbound packages with the same destination address as the first package and identified 14 inbound and two outbound packages. Oates packaged large amounts of cash and shipped it to California to pay for the drugs, court documents showed.

Oates, of Leighton, was ordered to complete three years of supervised probation after he is released from prison.

Robinson, 23, was sentenced earlier this year to one year and six months in federal prison. The Muscle Shoals man pleaded guilty to conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute methamphetamine and possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine

The Postal Inspection Service, Colbert County Drug Task Force, and the ALEA State Bureau of Investigation investigated the case, and Assistant U.S. Attorney Brad Felton prosecuted.