United States Drug Enforcement Administration

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa -- A Cedar Rapids man who distributed a significant amount of methamphetamine and heroin was convicted on November 5, after a four‑day trial in federal court in Cedar Rapids.  

Henry Watkins, age 52, from Cedar Rapids, Iowa, was convicted of one count of conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine and heroin and one count of distribution of methamphetamine. The verdict was returned following about 90 minutes of jury deliberations.  

The evidence at trial showed that, between January 2020 and March 2022, Watkins worked with others to distribute at least 50 pounds of methamphetamine and 100 grams of heroin to individuals in Eastern and Central Iowa.  In April 2020, law enforcement officers seized more than $20,000 from Watkins at an airport in Arizona after a canine alerted to the odor of a controlled substance on the money.  On December 21, 2021, Watkins distributed approximately one pound of methamphetamine to someone in Cedar Rapids. In late November 2023, Watkins traveled to the Philippines after he learned that he was under investigation. Watkins remained in the Philippines until March 2025 when he was arrested and later deported back to the United States.  

Sentencing before United States District Court Judge Leonard T. Strand will be set after a presentence report is prepared.  Watkins remains in custody of the United States Marshal.  Watkins faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years’ imprisonment and a possible maximum sentence of life imprisonment, a $10,000,000 fine, and a term of supervised release of at least five years and up to a lifetime.  

This prosecution is part of the 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 United States 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.  In performing this work, the HSTF places special emphasis on investigating and prosecuting those engaged in child trafficking or other crimes involving children.  The HSTF further utilizes all available tools to prosecute and remove the most violent criminal aliens from the United States. 

HSTF Kansas City is headquartered in Kansas City, Missouri, covering Missouri, Kansas, Iowa and Nebraska. HSTF Kansas City is composed of agents and officers from the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Department of Homeland Security Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Homeland Security Investigations, the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Internal Revenue Service, the United States Marshals Service, the United States Postal Inspection Service, the State Investigative Agencies for Missouri, Kansas, Iowa, and Nebraska, and the Kansas City Missouri Police Department.  

This HSTF case was investigated by HSTF Kansas City, with the assistance of the DEA, Cedar Rapids Police Department, the Mid‑Iowa Narcotics Enforcement Task Force, the Iowa Division of Narcotics Enforcement, the Phoenix, Arizona Police Department, and Iowa State Patrol. It was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Dillan Edwards and Jennifer Schrauth.