Champaign woman sentenced to 27 years in prison for conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine | News

URBANA — A Champaign woman has been sentenced to 27 years in prison for her role in leading a conspiracy to transport large quantities of ice methamphetamine from suppliers in other states into central Illinois.

U.S. District Judge Colin Bruce on Monday imposed the sentence on Malaia A. Turner, 36, after she was convicted in a four-day trial in May of conspiracy to distribute 500 grams or more of a mixture or substance containing methamphetamine.

A previously sealed indictment filed against Turner after her arrest in August 2022 states that prosecutors had evidence she traveled to Texas with an accomplice to purchase a substance containing methamphetamine from a supplier sometime between Dec. 1, 2019, and Jan. 4, 2020.

The indictment also alleges that between May 17, 2020, and January 17, 2021, she traveled to California with the same accomplice at least nine times to purchase a substance containing methamphetamine from a supplier with the intent to distribute it in central Illinois.

Turner and the accomplice also directed a second accomplice to transport approximately 100 pounds of a substance containing methamphetamine from California to northern and central Illinois between July 16, 2020, and July 31, 2020, the indictment said.

This apparently continued, with the second accomplice transporting approximately 50 kilograms of a substance containing methamphetamine into northern and central Illinois in September 2020, 63 kilograms in November 2020, and 82 kilograms in January 2021.

The judge ruled that Turner faced more severe punishment because of her leadership role in the conspiracy, according to the United States Attorney’s Office for the Central District of Illinois. She faced 10 years to life in prison and will be on probation for eight years upon her release.

The case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Springfield Field Office, the Illinois State Police’s East Central Illinois Task Force, and the United States Postal Inspection Service as part of an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces operation.

The task force “identifies, disrupts, and dismantles top-level drug traffickers, money launderers, gangs, and transnational criminal organizations.” U.S. Attorneys Rachel E. Ritzer and Timothy J. Sullivan prosecuted the case.