Former Falcon linebacker Kenneth Leon Tippins was sentenced to 12 years in prison in a federal court case involving drug trafficking on Thursday.
According to the AJC, Tippins pleaded guilty to possessing roughly 612 grams of cocaine with the intent to distribute.
52-year-old Tippins was on probation at the time of his arrest, and it was during a routine probation check when the drugs were discovered.
In May 2018, officers went looking for the former Falcon at his Adel home on Pine Lane, but Tippins was not at the residence. Officers visited the nearby home of his son, where Tippins answered the door and consented to a search of his Pine Lane home by state, local and K9 officers.
The AJC reported it was in the kitchen of the home where officers found "multiple open boxes of clear plastic sandwich bags and a food saver vacuum sealer," and 22 clear plastic bags of cocaine inside a cassette player hidden in the master bedroom.
According to U.S. Attorney Charles Peeler, 612.47 grams of cocaine were analyzed and confirmed by the GBI.
Senior Judge W. Louis Sands sentenced Tippns as a career offender in the U.S. Middle District Court of Georgia. The arrest made for Tippins' third felony drug conviction.
Tippins was served 12 years and seven months and a three-year supervised release following his prison term.
Tippins played for the NFL for seven years, he was a Falcon from 1990 to 1995.
