Man Caught on Wiretap Buying Heroin Fined $3,000 and Sentenced to Federal Probation

A man whose phone calls and text messages were intercepted by police as he purchased heroin was fined and sentenced on May 14, 2019, to probation and home detention.  

Ray Robertson, age 53, from Cedar Rapids, Iowa, received the sentence after a November 1, 2018, guilty plea to using a communication facility to commit a felony drug crime.

Information disclosed at the sentencing hearing indicates that law enforcement was conducting a court-authorized wiretap investigation when Robertson was intercepted, on multiple occasions, purchasing heroin.  Robertson used his cell phone to make phone calls and text messages to arrange the purchases of the heroin.  Because Robertson had prior drug-related convictions, his purchase and possession of heroin was a felony under federal law.

Robertson was sentenced in Cedar Rapids by United States District Court Judge C.J. Williams.  Robertson must serve a three-year term of probation, a condition of which is that he serve a 60-day term of home detention.  Robertson must also pay a fine of $3,000.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Justin Lightfoot and was investigated as part of the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF) program of the United States Department of Justice, by the 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 is 18-CR-105. 

Follow us on Twitter @USAO_NDIA.