Chicago Man Sentenced to Federal Prison for Distributing Fentanyl

A man who conspired to distribute fentanyl was sentenced today to more than 10 years in federal prison.

Johnathan Davis, age 30, from Chicago, Illinois, received the prison term after a January 23, 2023 guilty plea to conspiracy to distribute a controlled substance.

Evidence at the plea and sentencing hearings showed that law enforcement utilized a confidential source or undercover officer to conduct a series of controlled buys of purported heroin from Melvin Williams.  During the controlled buys, Davis provided Williams with fentanyl which Williams in turn distributed to the confidential source or undercover officer.  In late March 2022, Davis distributed an amount of fentanyl to Williams, who in turn distributed it to another person, which caused the person to suffer an overdose and die.  Then, in early April 2022, Williams distributed fentanyl he had received from Davis to Justin Jensen, who in turn distributed it to another person, which caused the person to suffer an overdose and crash their car on a highway in Waterloo.  On May 26, 2022, law enforcement officers searched a vehicle associated with Davis and located 200.59 grams of fentanyl.

Davis was sentenced in Cedar Rapids by United States District Court Judge C.J. Williams.  Davis was sentenced to 130 months’ imprisonment.  He must also serve a 5-year term of supervised release after the prison term.  There is no parole in the federal system.

Davis is being held in the United States Marshal’s custody until he can be transported to a federal prison.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Dillan Edwards and Special Assistant United States Attorney Adam J. Vander Stoep and was investigated as part of the Northern Iowa Heroin Initiative and the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF) program of the United States Department of Justice through a cooperative effort of the Federal Bureau of Investigation; the Tri-County Drug Enforcement Task Force consisting of the Waterloo Police Department, Cedar Falls Police Department, Black Hawk County Sheriff’s Department, Evansdale Police Department, Waverly Police Department, Hudson Police Department, La Porte City Police Department, and the Bremer County Sheriff’s Department; and the Iowa Division of Narcotics Enforcement.

Court file information at https://ecf.iand.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/login.pl. 

The case file number is 22-CR-02034.

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