Travis Gordon Jones, Opioid Trafficking, Iowa 2020

A Dubuque man was sentenced to 420 months in federal prison for his role in selling three deadly doses of opioids in 2019.

Travis Gordon Jones, 40, received the prison term after a July 29, 2020 guilty plea to one count of conspiring to distribute controlled substances resulting in death.

Jones admitted to conspiring with others to distribute opioids in Dubuque in April and May 2019. He also admitted to personally selling mixtures of heroin, fentanyl, and a synthetic opioid called valeryl fentanyl that were used by three individuals who then died of overdoses.

The first victim died on April 24, 2019. Jones sold the customer approximately 1.25 grams of a substance that contained heroin, fentanyl, and valeryl fentanyl. The customer then provided the drugs to the first victim, who took them home, used some of them, and was found dead a few hours later.

The second victim died on May 20, 2019. Jones sold Irvin some heroin laced with fentanyl and valeryl fentanyl, which Irvin was going to provide to one of his customers. The customer took some of the substance to a local women's shelter in Dubuque, where she had been staying. She used the substance, overdosed, and was found dead by shelter staff the next morning.

The third victim died on May 27, 2019. Evidence at prior hearings showed that Jackie Birch drove her boyfriend, Mateusz Syryjczyk, and the third victim to Jones's home in Dubuque during the early morning of May 27, 2019. Birch and the third victim went into the home, where they purchased what was purported to be heroin from Jones. The three then drove to a hotel in Dubuque, where they all used the purported heroin. The third victim began to overdose in the room.

Jones was sentenced in Cedar Rapids by United States District Court Judge C.J. Williams. He was sentenced to 420 months' imprisonment. He was ordered to make $21,044.60 in restitution to the victims. He must also serve a six-year term of supervised release after the prison term. There is no parole in the federal system.

Source: https://www.justice.gov/usao-ndia/pr/dubuque-man-who-sold-opioids-caused-three-deaths-sentenced-35-years-federal-prison