Donald Spivey, a 43-year-old resident of Spring, Texas, has been sentenced to nine years in federal prison for conspiring to distribute at least 500 grams of cocaine. The sentence was handed down by U.S. District Judge William M. Conley on January 16, 2026. Spivey had previously pleaded guilty to the charge on October 27, 2025.
The case began when an inspector from the United States Postal Inspection Service intercepted a suspicious package sent from Houston, Texas to Verona, Wisconsin on November 30, 2021. The package was linked to Spivey and contained about two kilograms of cocaine after being searched under a federal warrant.
Further investigation led law enforcement officers to an apartment in Sun Prairie, Wisconsin that Spivey used for drug storage. On April 6, 2023, authorities executed a search warrant at this location and seized approximately two kilograms of cocaine along with $5,160 in cash and various items associated with drug trafficking such as cell phones, a heat sealer, shipping material, a digital scale, and a drug press. Text messages found on Spivey's phones further confirmed his involvement in distributing drugs.
Spivey admitted to mailing the two kilograms of cocaine seized in November 2021 and acknowledged that he regularly trafficked cocaine from Texas to Wisconsin.
Investigators also searched the homes of Shelby Longino and Darnold Thomas, who were identified as coconspirators. At Longino’s residence, they discovered fentanyl pills weighing 183 grams as well as cocaine, heroin, ecstasy and $22,878 in cash. During the search at Thomas’s house authorities found two kilograms of methamphetamine.
At sentencing Judge Conley remarked that Spivey "was responsible for bringing a significant amount of cocaine into the community" and determined that "a lengthy sentence was warranted."
Darnold Thomas pleaded guilty on August 29, 2025 to possessing with intent to distribute more than 500 grams of methamphetamine and received a sentence of 90 months in prison on December 11, 2025. Shelby Longino pleaded guilty on July 31, 2025 to possessing with intent to distribute over 40 grams of fentanyl; she was sentenced to five years’ imprisonment on October 29, 2025.
Multiple agencies participated in investigating these cases including the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration; Wisconsin Department of Justice Division of Criminal Investigation; United States Postal Inspection Service; FBI; Wisconsin State Patrol; Kansas Highway Patrol; Columbia County Sheriff’s Office; and Madison Police Department. Acting U.S. Attorney Chadwick M. Elgersma prosecuted the case.
According to Acting U.S. Attorney Elgersma: “This prosecution is part of the U.S. Department of Justice’s Homeland Security Task Force (HSTF) initiative established by Executive Order 14159 ‘Protecting the American People Against Invasion.’ The HSTF is a whole-of-government partnership dedicated to eliminating criminal cartels foreign gangs transnational criminal organizations and human smuggling and trafficking rings operating in the United States and abroad... Through historic interagency collaboration the HSTF directs the full might of federal law enforcement towards identifying investigating and prosecuting the full spectrum of crimes committed by these organizations which have long fueled violence and instability within our borders.”
The HSTF places particular focus on cases involving child trafficking or other crimes against children while also using all available resources for prosecuting violent offenders involved with criminal organizations.
