Illinois Man Sentenced for Transportation of Drug Money

United States Attorney Deborah R. Gilg announced that on February 26, 2016, Matthew Steven Crothers, 32, of Palos Heights, Illinois, was sentenced to 15 months in prison for Interstate Travel/Transportation in Aid of Racketeering Enterprise.  Following the prison term, Crothers will serve three years on supervised release.

On October 25, 2014, Crothers was stopped by a Lancaster County Sheriff’s Deputy on Interstate 80 for having a suspended registration.  A deputy smelled the odor of marijuana coming from Crothers’s pickup truck.  The pickup was searched, and deputies did not find marijuana, but they did find $438,881.00 in cash inside a spare tire.  Further investigation by Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) resulted in a determination that the cash found in the spare tire was the proceeds of marijuana sales in the Chicago, Illinois, area and was being transported back to marijuana growers in California.  HSI Chicago reported that at that time, high-grade marijuana was selling in the Chicago area for approximately $2,500 per pound, and the cash found was therefore equivalent to approximately 175 ½ pounds of marijuana.

This case was investigated by the Lancaster County Sheriff’s Department and Homeland Security Investigations.