‘Career offender’ caught with 40 pounds of meth in Madison County is headed to prison
An Arkansas man arrested in Madison County after federal officers found 40 pounds of crystal meth in his rental car has been sentenced to serve 30 years in prison.
Christopher Palmer, 40, of Fort Smith, Arkansas, pleaded guilty in the case last year and was sentenced this week in federal court in East St. Louis, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office.
“Under federal sentencing guidelines, Palmer qualified as a ‘career offender’ for previous drug trafficking convictions,” the news release states. “Career offenders are eligible for longer terms of federal imprisonment.”
Palmer was arrested after two U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration highway interdiction officers pulled him over as he was driving a rental car on the Illinois 143 exit ramp off Interstate 70 near Marine in May 2022, according to the news release.
Palmer got out of the vehicle but then tried to re-enter the car but officers were able to detain him.
A police canine indicated a presence of drugs and then officers found a duffel bag stuffed with 40 bags holding about one pound each of crystal meth in the car’s trunk, the release stated.
A loaded Glock 43 semiautomatic pistol was found in the center console.
Palmer pleaded in June to one count of conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute meth, one count of possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime, and one count of felon in possession of a firearm.
Judge David W. Dugan sentenced Palmer on Tuesday, according to federal court records.
“As a repeat criminal offender, the defendant chose to transport drugs in bulk for distribution and unlawfully possess a firearm knowing the consequences,” said U.S. Attorney Rachelle Aud Crowe in the news release.
A Drug Enforcement Administration report states meth is a “stimulant that speeds up” a body’s system. “Crystal meth resembles glass fragments and is an illegally altered version” of a prescription drug “that is cooked with over-the-counter drugs in meth labs.”
