Yesterday, in U.S. District Court, Dominic Lindsey, a 35-year-old resident of Cincinnati, received a ten-year prison sentence for his role in trafficking significant quantities of methamphetamine and fentanyl, as confirmed by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Ohio. Lindsey's case was notable not just for the scale of the drug operation, but also because the fentanyl he sold was mixed with xylazine — a substance more commonly associated with tranquilizing horses, which has the insidious property of preventing Narcan, an emergency treatment, from reversing fentanyl overdoses.
Documents from the court reveal that Lindsey knowingly sold narcotics at a high level as far back as January 2024. The scale of his operation was substantial, with Lindsey being accountable for distributing more than a kilogram of methamphetamine alongside large sums of fentanyl and its analogues. This sentence comes as the latest in a string of at least 15 local offenses spanning nearly two decades, which included multiple drug and firearm violations. One particularly violent incident from his past involved Lindsey shooting an individual in the back of the neck, a conviction for aggravated assault with a firearm. At the time of this most recent federal offense, Lindsey was still under court supervision for his previous transgressions.
April 2024 saw the federal charges against Lindsey, with a guilty plea entered just last month, November 2025. The ten-year sentence was handed down by U.S. District Court Judge Jeffery P. Hopkins. The announcement of the sentencing came from Dominick S. Gerace II, United States Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio, and Jason Cromartie, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Cincinnati Division. The prosecution on behalf of the United States was led by Assistant United States Attorney Frederic C. Shadley.
The sentencing marks a conclusion to a significant investigative effort by federal agencies to seriously disrupt the flow of dangerous drugs like fentanyl into communities. The substantial prison time reflects the gravity of Lindsey's offenses and signals a continued commitment by the justice system to actively pursue and duly penalize those responsible for fueling the opioid crisis. To underscore the severity of Lindsey's actions, the U.S. Attorney's Office highlighted the lethal potential of combining fentanyl with drugs like xylazine, showcasing the direct threat to public health posed by such drug trafficking operations.
