EAST ST. LOUIS, Ill. – A U.S. District judge sentenced a California man to spend 100 months in federal prison after he admitted to distributing methamphetamine to southern Illinois.
Jewelion Yarbrough, 34, of, Long Beach, California, pleaded guilty to three counts of distribution of methamphetamine. In addition to the prison sentence, Yarbrough will serve three years of supervised release.
“The defendant tried to elude detection by mailing methamphetamine inside of children’s toys and a small appliance box, which could have easily landed in the wrong hands if mistakenly delivered to an incorrect address,” said U.S. Attorney Rachelle Aud Crowe. “I’m grateful to the agents who worked this case and apprehended this criminal.”
“Drug trafficking continues to fuel much of the violent crime that ATF investigates. There is no question that the cooperative efforts of the DEA, Postal Inspection Service and ATF to disrupt this distribution of methamphetamine and bring Mr. Yarbrough to justice, saved lives and likely prevented future drug related violence,” said Bernard Hanse, Special Agent in Charge, Kansas City Field Division, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
According to court documents, confidential sources working with ATF identified Yarbrough as a methamphetamine distributor in July 2019. Agents conducted three controlled purchases of methamphetamine from the defendant after communicating with him on social media, in which he mailed three separate packages containing narcotics from California to the Metro East. In total, the packages exceeded 100 grams of methamphetamine.
In the first two packages, Yarbrough disguised the methamphetamine in toys intended for children. In the third package, he disguised the narcotics in a kitchen appliance box. Law enforcement located Yarbrough’s fingerprints on both the drugs and the packaging.
The investigation was conducted by ATF, the Drug Enforcement Administration and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service. Assistant U.S. Attorney John Trippi prosecuted the case.