Two Cedar Rapids Men Sentenced for Heroin Distribution

Two Cedar Rapids men who worked together to sell heroin and crack cocaine were sentenced yesterday to serve terms of imprisonment in federal prison.

Chanord Hawkins, age 23, from Cedar Rapids, Iowa, (formerly Chicago, Illinois), received a prison term of 30 months’ imprisonment after a May 17, 2016, guilty plea to one count of distribution of heroin and crack cocaine.  Donnell Cole, age 29, from Cedar Rapids, Iowa, (formerly Chicago, Illinois) received a 16-month prison term after a May 27, 2016, guilty plea to one count of distribution of heroin and crack cocaine.

At the guilty plea, both admitted working together to sell cocaine base, commonly called crack cocaine and heroin in the Cedar Rapids area during late 2015.

Both defendants were sentenced in Cedar Rapids by United States District Court Chief Judge Linda R. Reade.  Both defendants must also serve a 3-year term of supervised release after the prison term and pay a special assessment of $100.  There is no parole in the federal system.  Both defendants are being held in the United States Marshal’s custody until they can be transported to a federal prison.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Tony Morfitt and investigated by as part of the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF) program of the United States Department of Justice through a cooperative effort of the Cedar Rapids police Department and 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; the Iowa City 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 CR 16-008. Follow us on Twitter @USAO_NDIA.