Madison County drug bust leads to federal prison term for St. Louis man

A 51-year-old man was sentenced to more than seven years in prison for trying to purchase cocaine in Pontoon Beach with the intent to distribute it.

Steve P. Kennedy, of St. Louis, was sentenced to 87 months behind bars on the drug charges and additional counts of possessing a firearm in a drug trafficking crime and being a felon in possession of a firearm.

Kennedy pleaded guilty to charges in May. Sentencing was carried out at the U.S. District Court for Southern Illinois in East St. Louis on Tuesday.

According to charging documents, on Aug. 12, 2020 Kennedy and a co-defendant Stephen Brown drove to a restaurant in Pontoon Beach to purchase 2 kilograms of cocaine. The man they were meeting was a confidential Drug Enforcement Administration source. DEA agents arrested the pair shortly after they arrived at the restaurant.

Kennedy was carrying a .22 caliber semi-automatic pistol with an attached silencer and seven loaded magazines, along with $33,000 in cash at the time of his arrest, according to the charges. Kennedy has a prior felony drug conviction from Mississippi that prohibits him from lawfully possessing a gun.

Brown had another $5,000 in his car and he was also charged. His sentencing will be held in October.

Kennedy was ordered to forfeit his interest in the seized cash, pay a $150 fine, and serve a three-year term of supervised release as part of the sentence.