A Canton man was given an 81-month prison sentence this past week in U.S. District Court in Peoria for the possession of methamphetamine with intent to distribute.
37-year-old Derek L. Pollitt was also sentenced to four years of supervised release, following the prison term, by U.S. District Judge James E. Shadid.
According to a release by the Department of Justice, in April of 2022, a Canton police officer stopped a car in which Pollitt was a front-seat passenger. Officers located a large zip-locked baggie containing 29.2 grams of actual methamphetamine on the floorboard of the front-passenger seat.
They also found that Pollitt had in his possession $129 in cash, along with various pills. Officers obtained records from CashApp that showed Pollitt was using the mobile financial service to transfer money to drug suppliers and customers.
Pollitt was indicted by a federal grand jury in June 2022 and pleaded guilty in December 2022. He has remained in the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service since his indictment.
The statutory penalties for possession of five grams or more of methamphetamine with intent to distribute are not less than five years and up to forty years imprisonment, not more than a $5M fine, and four years to life of the supervised release.
The Drug Enforcement Administration, the Canton Police Department, and the Illinois State Police investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Keith Hollingshead-Cook represented the United States in the prosecution.
The case against Pollitt is part of an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF)’s National Methamphetamine Strategic Initiative, spearheaded locally out of the Pekin Police Department.
