United States Drug Enforcement Administration

CHICAGO — Sheila G. Lyons, Special Agent in Charge of U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration Chicago Field Division, and Morris Pasqual, acting U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois announced that a suburban Chicago man has been sentenced to 16 years in federal prison for selling fentanyl-laced heroin.

Calvin Carter sold the drugs on two occasions in the fall of 2019. The first sale occurred in a gas station parking lot in Olympia Fields, Illinois, and the second occurred in a liquor store parking lot in Country Club Hills, Illinois. Unbeknownst to Carter, the buyer in both transactions was surreptitiously cooperating with law enforcement.

Carter, 44, of Country Club Hills, pleaded guilty earlier this year to federal drug distribution charges. In imposing the 16-year prison sentence on June 20, 2024, U.S. District Judge Manish S. Shah found that the government proved Carter possessed a firearm in connection with the drug offenses. Multiple firearms were discovered during a court-authorized search of Carter’s residence shortly after the drug sales.

Substantial assistance was provided by the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, FBI, Illinois State Police, and the Chicago Police Department. 

“The Defendant possessed almost one kilogram of heroin and fentanyl that he intended to distribute to others,” Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Niranjan Emani argued in the government’s sentencing memorandum.  “The type of drugs that defendant sold and intended for distribution have devastating effects on the community.”

The government was represented by Mr. Emani and Assistant U.S. Attorneys Tiffany Ardam and Kristen Totten.