Kylee D. Black, Methamphetamine Conspiracy, IL 2018

Kylee D. Black, 34, of Olney, Illinois, was hit with a 168-month federal prison sentence on February 14, 2018, for her role in a multi-year methamphetamine operation that poisoned Richland County. The sentence, handed down in U.S. District Court, includes four years of supervised release following incarceration. Black pled guilty to six counts tied to manufacturing, possessing precursor chemicals, and distributing the deadly drug.

The central charge, Count 1, exposed a sprawling conspiracy that ran from 2015 to April 21, 2017. Black and 57-year-old Vickie Sanders, also of Olney, teamed up with others—known and unknown—to cook and distribute 50 grams or more of methamphetamine. The operation wasn’t casual use—it was full-scale manufacturing, a calculated effort to flood the community with crystal.

Counts 3 through 6 nailed down Black’s repeated procurement of pseudoephedrine, the volatile base ingredient needed to cook meth. On four separate dates—April 3, 2015, September 30, 2015, December 15, 2015, and December 21, 2016—Black and Sanders bought the chemical knowing it would be used to produce meth. Each purchase was a brick in the foundation of their illicit lab.

Then came Count 7: distribution. On May 14, 2017, Black didn’t just cook the drug—she moved it. She knowingly and intentionally distributed methamphetamine in Richland County, putting the poison directly into the hands of users and addicts. That act alone justified federal intervention and a sentence that reflects the damage done.

Sanders, Black’s co-conspirator, has already pled guilty and awaits her own reckoning. She is scheduled for sentencing on March 13, 2018, in Benton, Illinois. The court will weigh her role in the conspiracy, which spanned nearly two years of illegal activity, and decide her fate under federal guidelines.

The Richland County Sheriff’s Office led the investigation, peeling back layers of secrecy to dismantle the operation. U.S. Attorney Donald S. Boyce announced the outcome, underscoring the federal commitment to crushing meth networks, no matter how small they seem. In towns like Olney, where desperation and drugs often mix, this case is a stark warning: cook poison, go to prison.