Month: November 2022

Source: United States Department of Justice News

DAVENPORT, Iowa – An Iowa City man and Zambia native, Kachimbe Mukanzu, also known as Kash, was sentenced on Wednesday, October 26, 2022, to 264 months in prison for Conspiracy to Engage in Sex Trafficking by Force, Fraud, and Coercion and Felon in Possession of a Firearm. Following his imprisonment, Mukanzu was ordered to serve five years of supervised release.

According to court documents, Kachimbe Mukanzu, age 35, recruited several young women and sexually exploited them by force, fraud and coercion. Mukanzu helped post advertisements through Backpage and various other sites where he would set up profiles for the victims advertising sex acts for money. Mukanzu promised the victims things of value and glamorized the lifestyle to lure them into performing commercial sex acts and in return he profited. Mukanzu provided the victims drugs so that they could work around the clock. On multiple occasions in 2018, Mukanzu drove the victims to different states for the purpose of sex trafficking. On February 4, 2022, Mukanzu pleaded guilty to the charges.

United States Attorney Richard D. Westphal of the Southern District of Iowa made the announcement. The Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Iowa City Police Department investigated the case.

Human trafficking is a crime involving the exploitation of youth under the age of 18 for commercial sex; the exploitation of adults for commercial sex through the use of force, fraud, or coercion; and the exploitation of any individual for compelled labor. Human trafficking does not require the transportation of individuals across state lines, or that someone is physically restrained. Signs that a person is being trafficked can include working excessively long hours, unexplained gifts, physical injury, substance abuse issues, running away from home, isolation from others, or having a person in their life controlling them or monitoring them closely. Victims particularly susceptible to being trafficked include those with criminal histories, a history of physical or sexual abuse, uncertain legal status, and dependency on controlled substances. Individuals who purchase sex from minors or from those who are otherwise exploited for commercial sex are also subject to prosecution for sex trafficking under federal law, if they knew or were in reckless disregard of the fact that they were under the age of 18, or that force, fraud, or coercion was used.

Anyone who has information about human trafficking should report that information to the National Human Trafficking Hotline toll-free at 1-888-373-7888, which is available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Information on the Department of Justice’s efforts to combat human trafficking can be found at www.justice.gov/humantrafficking.

Source: United States Department of Justice News

DAVENPORT, IA – Five people, all from the Quad Cities area, have now been sentenced to federal prison for their role as members of a large-scale methamphetamine trafficking organization in Davenport. Those sentenced as part of this drug conspiracy include:

• Theodore Thomas Browne, age 50, was sentenced to 20 years of imprisonment and five years of supervised release;
• Karley Ann Smith, age 29, was sentenced to 20 years of imprisonment and five years of supervised release;
• Donnie Wayne Robinson, age 36, was sentenced to 25 years of imprisonment and five years of supervised release;
• Joshua Steven Ennis, age 40, was sentenced to 20 years of imprisonment and five years of supervised release; and
• Joshua John Paarmann, age 32, was sentenced to 420 months of imprisonment and five years of supervised release.

In fall 2020, law enforcement identified eight individuals as members of a large-scale methamphetamine trafficking organization in Davenport. Paarmann and Robinson served as the conspiracy’s methamphetamine sources of supply. Robinson was arrested in November 2020 in possession of a firearm and approximately 40 grams of methamphetamine. Ennis was arrested in December 2020 in possession of a firearm and approximately 13 grams of cocaine. Smith was arrested in December 2020 in possession of more than 100 grams of methamphetamine. Paarmann was arrested in December 2020 in possession of more than 1,400 grams of methamphetamine, $5,800 of drug proceeds, a firearm, and numerous rounds of ammunition.

Paarmann, Lira, and Ennis were released from jail in early 2021. Ennis committed a burglary in which he stole two firearms. Law enforcement re-arrested Ennis in March 2021 in possession of three firearms, including the two stolen during the burglary. Browne recruited Paarmann and Lira to sell methamphetamine for him upon their release in February 2021. In March 2021, Paarmann and Nelson also made a trip to Colorado to transport methamphetamine back to Iowa for Browne. They were arrested upon their return to Scott County in possession of more than 400 grams of methamphetamine.

In total, the conspiracy was responsible for trafficking more than 2.5 kilograms of methamphetamine to the Quad Cities between July 2020 and March 2021.

Browne pleaded guilty on March 9, 2022; Smith pleaded guilty on March 22, 2022; Nelson pleaded guilty on March 31, 2022; Robinson pleaded guilty on April 12, 2022; Ennis pleaded guilty on May 9, 2022; and Paarmann was found guilty on May 25, 2022, following a jury trial.

In June 2022, co-defendant Chelsey Lira was sentenced to 180 months in prison. In August 2022, co-defendant Taylor Graeber was sentenced to 120 months in prison and Robert Nelson was sentenced to 168 months in prison.

United States Attorney Richard D. Westphal of the Southern District of Iowa made the announcement. The Davenport Police Department, Drug Enforcement Agency, Quad Cities Metropolitan Enforcement Group, Iowa State Patrol, and Scott County Sheriff’s Office investigated the case.

Source: United States Department of Justice News

DAVENPORT, IA – Timothy Allen Smith, age 32, of Joliet, Illinois was sentenced on Wednesday, October 26, 2022, to 144 months in prison following his guilty plea to Conspiracy to Distribute at Least 50 Grams of Actual Methamphetamine and Distribution of 50 grams and more of Methamphetamine.

According to court documents, Smith was identified as a member of a conspiracy trafficking large amounts of “ice” methamphetamine coming from Arizona. Smith distributed methamphetamine to other drug dealers in the Clinton and Davenport, Iowa area. Further investigation revealed that Smith also resided in the same house as one of his methamphetamine suppliers, Mario Moreno, who was also charged as part of this conspiracy investigation. In September 2019, Moreno, age 34, of Savanna, Illinois, received a 168-month sentence. Others sentenced as part of this drug conspiracy include:

• In April 2019, Flemming Lashae Lewis, age 39, of Clinton, was sentenced to 230 months of imprisonment;
• In April 2019, Charles Edward Lane III, age 34, of Clinton, was sentenced to 240 months of imprisonment, and
• In August 2019, Antonio Gipson, age 48, of Clinton, was sentenced to 210 months imprisonment.

United States Attorney Richard D. Westphal of the Southern District of Iowa made the announcement. This case was investigated by the Iowa Division of Narcotics Enforcement and the United States Drug Enforcement Administration.

Source: United States Department of Justice News

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – Alexander M.M. Uballez, United States Attorney for the District of New Mexico, announced that Luis Carlos Vásquez-Barragán, 51, of Nicolás Bravo, Chihuahua, Mexico, was sentenced to prison for possession with intent to distribute at least 50 kilograms but less than 100 kilograms of marijuana.

Vásquez-Barragán was arrested in Mexico in 2010 and extradited to the United States in 2020. He pleaded guilty on May 13, 2022. In his plea agreement, Vásquez-Barragán admitted that between March 2005 and September 2008 he imported at least 50 kilograms of marijuana into the United States on several occasions, totaling over 1,000 kilograms. Six of those shipments were seized by law enforcement in the District of New Mexico, totaling over 965 kilograms, as well as $302,507 in U.S. currency.

On Oct. 17, the court sentenced Vásquez-Barragán to 17 years and one month in prison. On Oct. 27, an addendum to the plea agreement was filed acknowledging that Vásquez-Barragán already had served nine years, five months and seven days of incarceration in Mexico on a related case while awaiting extradition to the United States. Pursuant to the addendum to the plea agreement, the Court imposed a sentence of seven years and seven months in prison, beginning from the date of his extradition to the United States.

The Drug Enforcement Administration investigated this case as part of the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF) Green Reaper investigation with assistance from the U.S. Marshals Service (USMS) and the Mexican Federal Police. OCDETF identifies, disrupts, and dismantles the highest-level drug traffickers, money launderers, gangs, and transnational criminal organizations that threaten the United States by using a prosecutor-led, intelligence-driven, multi-agency approach that leverages the strengths of federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies against criminal networks.

The Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs worked with USMS and law enforcement partners in Mexico to secure the arrest and extradition of Vásquez-Barragán to the United States. Assistant United States Attorneys Elaine Ramirez, Steve Kotz and Sean Sullivan and U.S. Attorney Uballez prosecuted the case.

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Source: United States Department of Justice News

HARRISBURG – The United States Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Pennsylvania announced that on October 24, 2022, Waylon Hutcheson, age 22, of Red Lion, Pennsylvania, was sentenced to 12 months’ imprisonment by U.S. District Court Judge Christopher C. Conner for drug trafficking and firearms offenses.

According to United States Attorney Gerard M. Karam, Hutcheson pleaded guilty on October 26, 2021, to possession with intent to distribute marijuana and receipt or possession of a firearm made in violation of the National Firearms Act. The sentence is a result of an investigation into the sale of drugs from Hutcheson’s home. Following “controlled purchases” of marijuana from Hutcheson, a warrant was executed, and he was found in possession of marijuana, oxycodone, THC, U.S. Currency, and drug trafficking paraphernalia. Police also recovered three self-made 9mm handguns with no serial numbers, a .22 caliber long rifle, three silencers, and a 30-round magazine. 

The case was investigated by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the Pennsylvania State Police.  Assistant U.S. Attorney Johnny Baer prosecuted the case.

This case is part of Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN), a program bringing together all levels of law enforcement and the communities they serve to reduce violent crime and gun violence, and to make our neighborhoods safer for everyone. On May 26, 2021, the Department launched a violent crime reduction strategy strengthening PSN based on these core principles: fostering trust and legitimacy in our communities, supporting community-based organizations that help prevent violence from occurring in the first place, setting focused and strategic enforcement priorities, and measuring the results.

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