Dimitri Miles Lopez Gets 16 Years for Gun, Meth Crimes

Dimitri Miles Lopez, 29, of the 600 block of Cole St., Kewanee, Ill., is headed to federal prison for 16 years and 8 months after being convicted in a high-stakes drug and gun case that exposed a dangerous pattern of criminal behavior. U.S. District Judge James E. Shadid handed down the 200-month sentence Tuesday in Peoria, Illinois, holding Lopez accountable for trafficking methamphetamine and wielding a sawed-off shotgun in the commission of the crime.

Lopez, already a convicted felon with a 2011 aggravated battery with a deadly weapon conviction and a 2010 criminal damage to property charge, admitted guilt on October 19, 2016. The crimes stemmed from a December 2, 2015, raid led by the Illinois State Police Blackhawk Area Task Force. Agents executed a search warrant at Lopez’s home and uncovered a loaded short-barreled 12-gauge shotgun stashed beneath the living room couch — a weapon designed for concealment and violence.

Inside Lopez’s pants pocket, officers found two baggies of methamphetamine and $2,000 in cash — physical evidence linking him to active drug distribution. Also recovered: a .38 revolver, illegal for any felon to possess. The discovery confirmed Lopez wasn’t just using drugs — he was running a trafficking operation under the protection of multiple firearms.

For possession of methamphetamine with intent to distribute, possession of a short-barreled shotgun, and being a felon in possession of firearms, Lopez received 80 months. But the court didn’t stop there. He was slapped with an additional 120 months — 10 years — for using a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime, a mandatory consecutive sentence under federal law.

Lopez has been in U.S. Marshals Service custody since his arrest in December 2015, meaning he’s already spent nearly a decade behind bars awaiting resolution. The stiff penalty reflects federal prosecutors’ zero-tolerance stance on felons armed in connection with narcotics operations — especially those with Lopez’s violent history.

The investigation was a coordinated strike by the Illinois State Police Blackhawk Area Task Force, the Kewanee Police Department, the Drug Enforcement Administration, and the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Supervised by Assistant U.S. Attorney John K Mehochko in the Rock Island Division of the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Central District of Illinois, the case closed a violent chapter in Kewanee’s ongoing battle with drug-fueled gun crime.