A Rockford hitter got handed a stiff nine-year bid in the big house for slinging deadly fentanyl on the streets and packing illegal heat. Derrick A. Mayes Jr., a 32-year-old local, copped to having a stash of the potent drug and nearly a hundred grams of crack, plus a loaded piece he had no business holding, seeing as he's a convicted felon.
The U.S. District Judge Iain D. Johnston dropped the hammer on Wednesday, sending Mayes up the river for 108 months without the possibility of a paddle. He was popped with more than a quarter-kilo of fentanyl and crack in his pad and ride back in April '21, along with a Smith & Wesson MP9 Shield that was ready to rock, according to a statement by the Justice Department.
It turns out Mayes wasn't new to the game. He admitted in a plea that he was dealing death by the dose, peddling fentanyl and crack to narcs pretending to be junkies in 2020 and 2021. This tough-guy act ultimately bought him a one-way ticket to federal lockup.
Getting guns out of the wrong hands is key to Project Safe Neighborhoods – the DOJ's plan to make the streets less like a shooting gallery. In the Land of Lincoln's northern parts, the feds and their badge-wearing buddies are using the PSN program to take down thugs with guns, Acting U.S. Attorney Morris Pasqual and DEA Agent Sheila G. Lyons are sticking to that script, with help from the local sheriff's office.
