Committing a Drug Crime While on Supervised Release Results in Prison Sentence

A man who was found in possession of cocaine in 2022 while he was federal supervised release from a 2002 drug offense was sentenced today to more than six years in federal prison.

Vachon Robertson, age 48, from Cedar Rapids, Iowa, received the prison term after a November 3, 2022 guilty plea to one count of possession with intent to distribute a controlled substance after having been previously convicted of a felony drug offense.

At the guilty plea and during the sentencing hearing, Robertson admitted he was in possession of 364 grams of cocaine and 28 grams of cocaine base, commonly called crack cocaine, on April 25, 2022, when he was stopped by Cedar Rapids police officers.  At that time, Robertson was still on supervised release from his 2002 federal drug conviction for possession with intent to distribute crack cocaine within 1000 feet of a public playground in Cedar Rapids.

Robertson was sentenced in Cedar Rapids by United States District Court Judge C.J. Williams.  Robertson was sentenced to a total sentence of 74 months’ imprisonment comprised of 46 months’ imprisonment for the new crime and a consecutive sentence of 28 months imprisonment for the supervised release violation.  He must also serve a 6-year term of supervised release after the prison term.  There is no parole in the federal system.

Robertson is being held in the United States Marshal’s custody until {he; she} can be transported to a federal prison.

These cases were prosecuted by Special Assistant United States Attorney Adam Vander Stoep and Assistant United States Attorney Patrick Reinert and was investigated as part of the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF) program of the United States Department of Justice through a cooperative effort of Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Task Force consisting of the DEA; the Linn County Sheriff's Office; the Cedar Rapids Police Department; the Marion Police Department; and the Iowa Division of Narcotics Enforcement. 

Court file information at https://ecf.iand.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/login.pl. 

The case file number are 02-CR-00029 and 22-CR-00057.

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