East St. Louis man sold drugs, laundered money. Now he’s going to federal prison

An East St. Louis man was sentenced to more than 33 years in a federal prison for selling meth and heroin and laundering money.

Eugene Falls, 42, was sentenced Thursday in the U.S. Court for the Southern District of Illinois on convictions of distributing and possessing methamphetamine, heroin, and cocaine with the intent to sell; attempted possession and distribution; and money laundering.

Falls was found guilty on Dec. 2, 2021. He received the harsher sentence because of a prior drug conviction, according to a press release from the United States Attorney’s Office.

According to the criminal complaint, Falls received over 19 pounds of meth and 4 kilograms of heroin from Dec. 2018 through March 2019. He also laundered drug money to cover-up his dope selling enterprise, the charges state.

Falls was arrested in March 2019, after trying to buy another 10 pounds of methamphetamine.

Falls was previously convicted in the Southern District of Illinois for distribution and conspiracy to distribute crack cocaine. He was still on supervised release for that case at the time he committed the new crimes.

Falls faced a mandatory minimum of 15 years in the department of corrections for that prior offense. He will be required to serve a new 10-year term of supervised release once he completes his prison bid, a release from the court stated.

The case was investigated by the Drug Enforcement Administration and the Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigation.