Dontrell Powell, Meth and Fentanyl Trafficking, Missouri 2025

Springfield Man Sentenced to 32.5 Years for Meth and Fentanyl Trafficking

A Springfield, Missouri man has been sentenced to 32 and a half years in federal prison for his role in a drug-trafficking conspiracy involving 19 defendants and over $1.8 million worth of methamphetamine and fentanyl.

Dontrell A. Powell, 36, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Brian C. Wimes to 32 and a half years in federal prison without parole for one count each of conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine and possession of firearms in furtherance of drug trafficking.

Powell pleaded guilty on January 21, 2025. The investigation into the drug-trafficking organization began on January 17, 2024, when a Trooper with the Oklahoma Highway Patrol searched a vehicle on a car hauler at a truck stop in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

The Trooper found approximately 100 pounds of methamphetamine and two pounds of fentanyl pills hidden in a subwoofer speaker box in the cargo area of a Dodge Magnum. The approximate street value of the drugs was $1,850,000.

Agents with the Drug Enforcement Administration removed the fentanyl pills from the Dodge Magnum and replaced most of the methamphetamine with sham methamphetamine before conducting a controlled delivery of the vehicle the next morning.

On January 18, 2024, Dontrell Powell and his brother, Dreshawn Powell, 28, also of Springfield, Missouri, arrived at the parking lot in a 2018 Mercedes Benz GLE, which was registered to Dontrell.

Powell signed for the Dodge Magnum, which had been shipped from California to Missouri under a false name, and drove it out of the parking lot. Agents followed the Powell brothers and two codefendants to Dontrell Powell’s residence, where they were all arrested.

When agents searched Dontrell Powell’s residence they found an Anderson Manufacturing multi-caliber, semi-automatic pistol, two Glock carrying cases, three high-capacity Glock magazines, including a drum-style magazine loaded with 40 rounds of ammunition, several types of ammunition, and approximately $140,000.

Agents also located four more large subwoofer boxes at the residence and a loaded Glock, .40 caliber semi-automatic pistol in the glove box of Dontrell Powell’s Mercedes.

This case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Jessica R. Eatmon. It was investigated by the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the Oklahoma Highway Patrol, the Kansas Bureau of Investigation, the Parsons, Kansas, Police Department, the Ozarks Drug Enforcement Team, and the Labette County, Kansas, Sheriff’s Department.

The case is part of an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF) operation. OCDETF identifies, disrupts, and dismantles the highest-level criminal organizations that threaten the United States using a prosecutor-led, intelligence-driven, multi-agency approach.

Source: https://www.justice.gov/usao-wdmo/pr/springfield-man-sentenced-meth-and-fentanyl-trafficking