Group Had Over Eighty Customers and Averaged Twenty Sales a Day
Two men who worked with each other and others to sell heroin throughout the Cedar Rapids area, were sentenced on Nov. 19, 2018, to lengthy federal prison terms.
Garland Lightfoot, age 28, and Rolando Brown, age 30, both from Chicago, Illinois, received the prison sentences after their guilty pleas to heroin-related crimes. Lightfoot pled guilty on June 25, 2018, to the distribution of heroin after a prior drug felony conviction, and was sentenced to over fifteen years in prison. Brown received a sentence of ten years in prison after his June 19, 2018, guilty plea to conspiracy to distribute 100 grams or more of heroin near a protected location after a prior drug felony conviction.
According to sentencing documents and information disclosed during the sentencing hearing, Lightfoot and Brown were involved with a group of heroin dealers from at least February 2018 through April 2018. During that time, the group had at least eighty customers and made, on average, twenty sales of heroin per day. One additional member of this group, Eddy Watt, was previously sentenced to more than five years’ imprisonment.
Lightfoot and Brown were sentenced in Cedar Rapids by United States District Court Judge Linda R. Reade. Lightfoot was sentenced to 188 months’ imprisonment followed by a six-year term of supervised release. Brown was sentenced to 120 months’ imprisonment, and must serve an eight-year term of supervised release following his prison term. There is no parole in the federal system. Lightfoot and Brown are both 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 Justin Lightfoot 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 the 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 18-CR-42. The case file number for Eddy Watt is 18-CR-43.
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Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
