CHICAGO — A Chicago man has been arrested on a federal drug charge for allegedly selling wholesale quantities of heroin and fentanyl in the West Loop neighborhood of Chicago.
WILLIAM TOWNSEND, 40, of Chicago, is charged with distribution of a controlled substance. A criminal complaint filed in U.S. District Court in Chicago accuses Townsend of distributing the heroin and fentanyl to two suspected drug traffickers. The sales occurred in a residential building in the 700 block of West Couch Place in Chicago, the complaint states.
During the investigation, law enforcement seized approximately $469,000 in cash and approximately a kilogram of suspected heroin.
Townsend was arrested on Sept. 10, 2020. He appeared Monday before U.S. Magistrate Judge Jeffrey I. Cummings in Chicago and was ordered to remain detained in federal custody.
The complaint and arrest were announced by John R. Lausch, Jr., United States Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois; and Emmerson Buie, Jr., Special Agent-in-Charge of the Chicago Field Office of the FBI. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Kristen Totten, Matthew Kutcher, and Edward A. Liva, Jr., represent the government.
The public is reminded that a complaint contains only a charge and is not evidence of guilt. The defendant is presumed innocent and entitled to a fair trial at which the government has the burden of proving guilt beyond a reasonable doubt. If convicted, the Court must impose a reasonable sentence under federal sentencing statutes and the advisory U.S. Sentencing Guidelines.
