A Detroit man has been hit with a 15-year federal prison sentence for his role as a "kingpin" in a drug trafficking operation and for stealing millions in pandemic unemployment benefits, authorities reported. United States Attorney Dawn Ison announced that Robert Lampkin, 41, directed a conspiracy that received more than 9 kilograms of methamphetamine from a California source, ferried back to Michigan in airline baggage courtesy of his accomplices, as stated by the U.S. Attorney’s Office. Lampkin and fellow conspirator Brenden Lockridge, 26, also executed an elaborate unemployment fraud scheme using stolen identities to file fraudulent claims.
"We will use every resource available to combat those who spread the scourge of illegal drugs in our communities and we won't cease our efforts to hold accountable those who used a global pandemic to enrich themselves at the expense of taxpayers," Ison said, per The Detroit News. The drug enterprise involved co-defendants JoShawn Bennett, 37, Tiffany Stockman, 24, and Tammie Wade, 32, who reportedly transported the illicit drugs. Furthermore, Lampkin and Lockridge are required to pay back the $2.1 million they swindled from pandemic unemployment funds.
Special agents from the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Department of Labor Office of Inspector General were behind the investigation that led to Lampkin's sentencing. "This sentence reflects our continued resolve to partner with all our law-enforcement counterparts to fight greed, violence, and drug addiction," DEA Special Agent in Charge Orville O. Greene said, as per FOX 2 Detroit. The priority for these agencies is targeting high-level officials in criminal drug rings that jeopardize public safety and welfare.
In a bid for leniency, Lampkin's attorney, Larry Polk, argued his client was a father of three with health problems who showed remorse and aimed to use available training and job opportunities to improve. Still, the court handed down the decade-and-a-half-long sentence encompassing both the drug charges and the pandemic assistance fraud, with Special Agent-in-Charge Irene Lindow stressing the importance of prosecuting those who exploited a program designed "to assist struggling American workers during an unprecedented global pandemic," as they committed their identity theft crimes, as cited by The Detroit News.
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