Iowa Man Also Sold Cocaine and Laundered Proceeds from Drug Sales
A Cedar Rapids man and a man from Washington State who sold more than 100 pounds of marijuana were each sentenced on May 8, 2018, to multiple years in federal prison.
Buddy Xeko, age 36, from Cedar Rapids, Iowa, received the prison term after a December 7, 2017, guilty plea to one count of conspiracy to distribute marijuana and cocaine and two counts of money laundering. At the guilty plea, Xeko admitted he agreed to distribute more than 110 pounds of marijuana and quantities of cocaine in the Cedar Rapids area between 2011 and 2016. Xeko also admitted he conspired to commit money laundering and used money he acquired from selling drugs to purchase an SUV that cost more than $50,000.
Xeko was sentenced in Cedar Rapids by United States District Court Judge Linda R. Reade. Xeko was sentenced to 71 months’ imprisonment. He must also serve a 3-year term of supervised release after the prison term. There is no parole in the federal system.
Gregory Sills, age 45, from Concrete, Washington, received the prison term after a Nov. 30, 2017, guilty plea to one count of conspiracy to distribute marijuana. At the guilty plea, Sills admitted he agreed to distribute more than 110 pounds of marijuana and quantities of cocaine in the Cedar Rapids area between 2011 and 2016. Sills got the marijuana he was selling from Xeko.
Sills was also sentenced in Cedar Rapids by United States District Court Judge Reade. Sills was sentenced to 57 months’ imprisonment. He must also serve a 3-year term of supervised release after the prison term. There is no parole in the federal system.
Both Xeko and Sills are being held in the United States Marshal’s custody until they can be transported to a federal prison.
The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Patrick Reinert and was investigated as part of the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF) program of the United States Department of Justice through a cooperative effort of Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Task Force consisting of the DEA; the Linn County Sheriff's Office; the Cedar Rapids Police Department; the Marion Police 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 17-CR-00063.
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Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
