Fort Wayne Man Sentenced to 420 Months in Prison

FORT WAYNE – On October 30, 2025, James J. Oldham, V, 28 years old, of Fort Wayne, Indiana, was sentenced by United States District Court Chief Judge Holly A. Brady after pleading guilty to conspiring to distribute and possess with intent to distribute fentanyl and to distributing fentanyl, announced Acting United States Attorney M. Scott Proctor.

Oldham was sentenced to 420 months in prison followed by 5 years of supervised release.

According to documents in the case, Oldham went to trial in November of 2024, but he decided to plead guilty after the fourth day of trial.  Oldham coordinated the transportation and distribution of massive quantities of fentanyl pills from Arizona to Indiana, distributing the pills in northeastern and central Indiana.  Oldham recruited young women to transport his drugs on commercial airlines, including two minors under the age of 18.   

"Fentanyl is not just an illegal drug - it’s a weapon of destruction in our communities, destroying lives and devastating families,” said FBI Indianapolis Special Agent in Charge Timothy J. O’Malley. “This sentence underscores the FBI’s unwavering commitment to work with our law enforcement partners to remove these dangerous dealers from our streets and keep our neighborhoods safe.”

“James Oldham organized a criminal conspiracy to traffic enormous quantities of a deadly and addictive poison into northern Indiana,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Proctor.  “To further this illicit scheme, he enlisted others—including two underage girls—to serve as drug mules.  The hefty sentence he received is just in light of the harm his trade has visited on our communities and the callous disregard he demonstrated towards the vulnerable women and girls swept up in his scheme.  My thanks go out to the exceptional team of law enforcement professionals who worked diligently to put him in federal prison.”

This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Fort Wayne Safe Streets Gang Task Force, which includes the FBI, Indiana State Police, Allen County Sheriff’s Department, and Fort Wayne Police Department.  The Drug Enforcement Administration’s North Central Laboratory, the Phoenix (Arizona) Police Department, the Glendale (Arizona) Police Department, and the Allen County (Indiana) Prosecuting Attorney’s Office assisted in the investigation.  The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Anthony W. Geller and Lesley J. Miller Lowery.

This case was part of an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF) investigation. OCDETF identified, disrupted, and dismantled the highest-level drug traffickers, money launderers, gangs, and transnational criminal organizations that threaten the United States by using a prosecutor-led, intelligence-driven, multi-agency approach that leveraged the strengths of federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies against criminal networks.  OCDETF’s mission has since been brought under the ambit of the Homeland Security Task Force (HSTF) program.