Man sentenced for shuttling drugs from East St. Louis to other cities, laundering money
A 24-year-old man will spend the next 11 year of his life in a federal prison on drug and money laundering charges, a judge in the U.S. Federal Court for the Southern District of Illinois ruled Friday.
Lendarious Hayes of Meridian, Mississippi was sentenced for conspiracy to distribute cocaine and money laundering conspiracy. He was one of 13 defendants in a 13-count indictment returned by an East St. Louis grand jury in October 2019. One year later, he pleaded guilty to the two charges in which he was named.
According to court records, Hayes distributed cocaine between East St. Louis, Houston, Memphis, Jackson, Mississippi, and other locations from 2014 through 2018. Hayes personally distributed at least 32 kilograms of cocaine throughout the country, according to the court. Other couriers assisted in the distribution of at least 260 kilograms (about 573 lbs) of cocaine for the same organization.
Hayes was also charged with participating in a money laundering conspiracy in which he directed the deposit and withdrawal of thousands of dollars of drug proceeds into a co-conspirator’s bank account, according to court records.
Many of Hayes’ co-defendants were charged with distributing methamphetamine. Eight co-defendants have already pleaded guilty, with four of them receiving prison sentences of more than 10 years, according to a release from the federal court.
