SYRACUSE -- A former Syracuse man will spend more than 17 years in prison in a drug and money laundering scheme.

42-year-old Jimmie Henry, also known as "Cuz," was sentenced in federal court to two sentences of 210 months in prison. He pleaded guilty to conspiring to possess with intent to distribute and distribute more than 5 kilograms of a mixture or substance containing cocaine. He also pleaded guilty to concealment money laundering.

Federal prosecutors say Henry was the leader of a large scale cocaine-by-mail conspiracy that operated between 2005 and August 8, 2008. As part of the scheme, prosecutors say at least up to 50 kilograms of cocaine were mailed from California by Henry, or by those acting at his direction, to co-conspirators in Syracuse. They say those people including his cousin Ernest Henry and Cindy Linder, who "caught" Jimmy's cocaine packages, and who, in turn, recruited others, including Keahasia Delee, to "catch" the cocaine packages for them.

Prosecutors say the drugs were then delivered to Syracuse area co-conspirators Lorenzo Knight, Deyon Smith, and others, who had paid for the cocaine in advance to Ernest Henry, who, in turn, mailed it.

Jimmie in California. Ernest Henry, Delee, Linder, Knight, and Smith are also charged in the case.

Henry also admits he laundered $288,993, profit from his illegal cocaine venture, through a bank account in Los Angeles established and maintained by his wife, Lanise Joiner, and Henry thereafter used the money to buy and pay the mortgage for a house in the Los Angeles area for $1.125 million dollars.

Lanise Joiner pleaded guilty to engaging in a money laundering conspiracy with Jimmie Henry and using approximately $80,000 of her husband's drug proceeds to make mortgage payments on their home. The home was eventually foreclosed on in 2008 for nonpayment of the $8,000 monthly mortgage payment. Joiner was sentenced to one year in prison and two years of supervised release.

Prosecutors say the cocaine and concealment money laundering schemes unraveled in August 2008, when a drug canine alerted to a suspicious package mailed to a Syracuse resident from a return address and name in Los Angeles that turned out to be fake. Investigators later found one kilogram of cocaine inside, valued at approximately $28,000. Prosecutors say Ernest Henry tried to retrieve the package at the post office and was later arrested.

Along with his 210 month prison sentence, Henry also faces five years of supervised release and a fine.