Thirty-six-year-old Saleem Akbar Sharif of Johns Island, S.C., was sentenced Wednesday by a federal judge in Delaware. He pleaded guilty last year to conspiracy and possession with intent to distribute heroin.
The defense blamed Sharif's criminal conduct on post-traumatic stress disorder from the violence he saw after being deployed to Iraq in 2004.
Prosecutors suggested that Sharif was motivated by profit, and the defense acknowledged that Sharif knew what he was doing was wrong. Court records show Sharif and his accomplices concealed the heroin in DVD cases.
