May 31, 2011
Contact: Robert J. Hanson
St. Louis Division
314-538-4670

BENTON, IL. - Stephen R. Wigginton, the United States Attorney for the Southern District of Illinois, announced that a Dalgren man, who plead guilty on February 25, 2010, was sentenced on May 27, 2011, in United States District Court at Benton, Illinois, on an indictment charging him with Possession of a Listed Chemical (Pseudoephedrine) Knowing it Would Be Used to Manufacture a Controlled Substance (Methamphetamine).

Ray M. Cross, 55, of Dalgren, Illinois, was sentenced to serve 87 months’ in federal prison, to pay a $300 fine and to serve two years’ of supervised release following his incarceration. The violations took place from on or about October 2007, through October, 2010, in Jefferson, White and
Franklin counties in Illinois.

At his plea, Cross admitted to the court that he would obtain pseudoephedrine pills for use in manufacturing methamphetamine. The methamphetamine produced was then used by him and or sold to others in Southern Illinois. Records from several merchants throughout Southern Illinois showed numerous purchases of pseudoephedrine by Cross during this period.

This investigation was conducted jointly by the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Illinois State Police, the Southern Illinois Drug Task Force, and the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office.