Repeat Drug Trafficker Sentenced to Over 8 Years for Fentanyl Distribution

MADISON, WIS. – Timothy M. O’Shea, United States Attorney for the Western District of Wisconsin, announced that Jarrell Knight, 38, Hammond, Indiana, was sentenced on June 20, 2024 by U.S. District Judge William M. Conley to 8 ¼ years in federal prison for distributing 40 or more grams of fentanyl. Knight pleaded guilty to this charge on March 26, 2024. Knight committed the instant offense while under federal supervision for a previous drug trafficking conviction. Judge Conley revoked that supervision and imposed an additional 18-month sentence to run consecutive to the sentence on the new conviction. 

On March 16, 2023, Knight met with an individual in Beloit to sell two ounces of fentanyl. Police monitoring the transaction observed and recorded Knight’s meeting with the individual and the substance obtained in the purchase tested positive for fentanyl. Knight was indicted by a federal grand jury in September 2023, and subsequently arrested in Hammond, Indiana.

At the sentencing, Judge Conley noted that Knight spent most of his adult life profiting from the suffering of others by exploiting their drug addictions. Judge Conley also considered it an aggravating factor that Knight sold drugs while under federal supervised release from his 2013 drug trafficking conviction. 

The charge against Knight was the result of an investigation conducted by the Rock County Sheriff’s Office, Beloit Police Department, Wisconsin Department of Justice Division of Criminal Investigation, and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Anderson prosecuted this case.