United States Drug Enforcement Administration

PEORIA, Ill. – Todd C. Smith, Assistant Special Agent in Charge at Drug Enforcement Administration-Chicago Field Division, and U.S. Attorney Gregory K. Harris for the Central District of Illinois announced that Keyshawn Q. Banks, 24, of Peoria, was sentenced on March 9, 2023, to 120 months of imprisonment, to be followed by five years of supervised release, for possession with intent to distribute 50 grams or more of actual methamphetamine (“Ice”).

At the sentencing hearing before Senior U.S. District Judge Michael M. Mihm, the government presented evidence establishing that Banks distributed ice methamphetamine in the Peoria area from at least March 2022 to July 2022. On July 13, 2022, officers intercepted Banks in his vehicle on his way to a drug sale. When several officers surrounded his vehicle, Banks tried to flee from the scene but struck a nearby house and was apprehended. Officers then found 118 grams of methamphetamine on the backseat of his car. The methamphetamine was 99% pure. Banks was held accountable for possessing and distributing 2.78 pounds of methamphetamine over the course of the four-month investigation.

A criminal complaint was filed against Banks in July 2022, and he was indicted in August 2022. He entered a guilty plea in September 2022. Judge Mihm accepted Banks’s guilty plea in December 2022.

The statutory penalty for possession of methamphetamine with intent to distribute is a minimum of 10 years to life imprisonment, a possible fine of up to $10 million dollars, and no less than five years to life of supervised release.

The DEA and Peoria Police Department, assisted by the Illinois State Police Tri-County Drug Enforcement Narcotics Team, investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Ronald L. Hanna represented the government in the prosecution.