A Union City man has been sentenced to over 19 years in federal prison.
51 year old Charles Belk was sentenced to 235 months in federal prison for possessing a large quantity of methamphetamine with the intent to distribute it, in violation of federal law.
D. Michael Dunavant, United States Attorney for the Western District of Tennessee, announced the sentence today.
According to evidence presented in court, on January 31, 2024, postal inspectors with the U.S. Postal Inspection Service were alerted to a suspicious package that was mailed from California to an apartment complex in Union City.
The package came to their attention because it had similar characteristics to previous packages that had been delivered to the same apartment complex and which had been tracked by an IP address in Mexico.
After securing a federal search warrant on the package, law enforcement determined that it contained over 2,200 grams of suspected methamphetamine.
When law enforcement delivered the package to the apartment complex, Belk took the package—which was addressed to a different recipient and apartment number—into his possession and brought it into his apartment.
A search warrant execution at Belk’s apartment led to the seizure of an additional amount of methamphetamine, over $7,000 of U.S. currency, and several firearms.
Further investigation revealed that Belk had been using his neighbors’ names and addresses to receive prior packages. In all, the amount of actual methamphetamine involved was over 1,700 grams.
Belk pled guilty to two counts of possessing with the intent to distribute actual methamphetamine.
