DELANO — Kristopher Thomas has been in prison since 2010, when he was sentenced to 50 years to life for killing a man who identified himself as a member of a rival Los Angeles Crip gang, according to court records.

Despite being locked away in Kern Valley State Prison, federal prosecutors say 37-year-old Thomas was able to control methamphetamine distribution not just in California but Hawaii, Oklahoma, Alabama and New Jersey. When the DEA launched a federal investigation in 2022, agents were able to identify the first of seven contraband cellphones Thomas allegedly possessed over the next several months, and secure wiretaps for six of them, court records show.

These details, publicized in recent federal court filings, are the latest demonstration of how incarcerated California gangsters

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