Iowa heroin dealer who sold fatal dose sentenced to over three years in federal prison

CEDAR RAPIDS – A man who sold nearly 80 grams of heroin in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, was sentenced today to more than three years in federal prison.

Marcus Lamont Long, age 33, from Dubuque, Iowa, received the prison term after a December 27, 2019 guilty plea to one count of use of a communications facility to commit a felony drug crime.

Evidence at a prior hearing showed that, in April 2019, Cedar Rapids first responders were called to a residence for a disturbance. When they arrived on the scene, the first responders found one person deceased from a suspected overdose and another who had overdosed, lost consciousness, and then woke up. After a short investigation, officers discovered the phone number for the individual who had sold the purported heroin to the two people who overdosed. The officers contacted the number and arranged to purchase heroin from Long, who had answered the phone. Long was arrested shortly thereafter, and admitted that he had used the phone to arrange the heroin transaction.

Long was sentenced in Cedar Rapids by United States District Court Judge C.J. Williams. Long was sentenced to 37 months’ imprisonment. He must also serve a one-year term of supervised release after the prison term. There is no parole in the federal system.

Long is being held in the United States Marshal’s custody until he can be transported to a federal prison.

The case was investigated by the Cedar Rapids Police Department and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) Task Force consisting of the DEA; the Linn County Sheriff’s Office; the Cedar Rapids Police Department; the Marion Police Department; and the Iowa Division of Narcotics Enforcement, and was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Dan Chatham.