Evergreen Reporter

A woman involved in a conspiracy to distribute cocaine, which resulted in the death of a young woman, was sentenced on August 15, 2024, to more than nine years in federal prison.

Whitaker Jo Ingles, age 30, from Dyersville, Iowa, received the prison term after a March 14, 2024 guilty plea to one count of conspiracy to distribute 500 grams or more of cocaine between 2019 and February 17, 2021, near Madison Park in Dubuque, Iowa.

At the guilty plea and sentencing, Ingles admitted she was part of a conspiracy to distribute cocaine in the Dubuque area. She helped obtain the cocaine from an individual who transported it from Chicago and then worked with others to distribute it to customers in Dubuque. On February 14, 2021, one of her partners distributed cocaine to a young woman in Dubuque who subsequently died after using it.

Ingles was sentenced in Cedar Rapids by United States District Court Chief Judge C.J. Williams. She received a sentence of 115 months’ imprisonment and was ordered to pay $13,911.02 in restitution to the victim’s family. Additionally, she must serve an eight-year term of supervised release following her prison term. There is no parole in the federal system.

Ingles is currently held in United States Marshal’s custody until her transfer to a federal prison.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Patrick J. Reinert and Nicole Nagin and investigated as part of the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF) program through cooperation between the Federal Bureau of Investigation; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; Iowa Medical Examiner’s Office; and the Dubuque Drug Task Force comprising members from Dubuque Police Department and Dubuque Sheriff’s Office.

Court file information can be accessed at https://ecf.iand.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/login.pl under case file number 24-CR-01006.

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