A man convicted of dealing cocaine has been sentenced to serve 22 years in prison for his Pittsburgh drug crimes.

Our Pittsburgh drug crime attorneys know that what a person is ultimately sentenced to depends a great deal on the individual facts of the case - and how well your attorney represents you. It's critical in any drug case that you immediately contact a criminal defense attorney - before you give ANY statement to law enforcement or other authorities.

This was a case in which the individual was charged with federal drug crimes, one of more than 40 individuals who were busted two years ago in a Mon-Valley cocaine trafficking ring.

While this 35-year-old individual was believed to have been involved in trafficking about a half a kilo of cocaine, which could result in a sentence of 10 years, prosecutors argued that he was a career criminal. Past crimes can have an impact on the judge's setencing decision. A short rap sheet can work in your favor, while a longer one could give your defense attorney less leverage.

In this case, the defendant had been arrested on 30 different occassions since he was 16 years-old. He reportedly was convicted 11 times as an adult. According to police, he was out on bond in 2010 for drug trafficking charges when he sparked a high-speed chase, sometimes jumping curbs, taking his vehicle off-roading, and driving the wrong-way through traffic. He reportedly had two of his 10 children in the car with him at the time of that chase.

Another defendant, 32, had an old video come back to haunt him. While family and friends testified that he was a non-violent man who deserved leniency, prosecutors produced a years-old video that seemed to show him beating an unidentified man, appearing to sodomize him with a broomstick and put a gun that was loaded to his head. The judge took that evidence into consideration when handing down his sentence on cocaine trafficking charges.

Others who had been involved in the drug trafficking ring who have so far been sentenced have received lesser prison sentences. According to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, one received 17 years, another received 15 years, another five years and another three years.