Donald Spivey, a 43-year-old resident of Spring, Texas, was sentenced to nine years in federal prison for conspiring to distribute 500 grams or more of cocaine. The sentence was handed down on January 16, 2026, by U.S. District Judge William M. Conley in Madison, Wisconsin. Spivey had pleaded guilty to the charge on October 27, 2025.
The case began when an inspector from the United States Postal Inspection Service intercepted a suspicious package sent from Houston, Texas to Verona, Wisconsin on November 30, 2021. The parcel was linked to Spivey and contained about two kilograms of cocaine. A search warrant allowed law enforcement officers to examine the contents.
Further investigation led authorities to an apartment in Sun Prairie, Wisconsin where Spivey stored drugs. On April 6, 2023, investigators executed a search warrant at this location and found roughly two kilograms of cocaine, $5,160 in cash, several cell phones, a heat sealer, shipping materials, a digital scale and a drug press. Text messages retrieved from Spivey’s phones documented his involvement in drug trafficking.
Spivey waived his rights and admitted he had mailed the two kilograms of cocaine seized in November 2021. He also confessed to routinely trafficking cocaine from Texas to Wisconsin.
During the investigation into the conspiracy, law enforcement searched homes belonging to Shelby Longino and Darnold Thomas—identified as coconspirators. At Longino’s residence officers discovered fentanyl pills weighing 183 grams as well as cocaine, heroin, ecstasy and $22,878 in cash. At Thomas’s home they seized two kilograms of methamphetamine.
At sentencing Judge Conley remarked that “Spivey was responsible for bringing a significant amount of cocaine into the community.” Judge Conley concluded that “a lengthy sentence was warranted.”
Shelby Longino pleaded guilty on July 31, 2025 to possessing with intent to distribute over 40 grams of fentanyl and received a five-year prison sentence on October 29 that year. Darnold Thomas pleaded guilty August 29, 2025 to possessing with intent to distribute over 500 grams of methamphetamine; he was sentenced December 11 to ninety months imprisonment.
Multiple agencies contributed to the investigation: the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration; Wisconsin Department of Justice Division of Criminal Investigation; United States Postal Inspection Service; FBI; Wisconsin State Patrol; Kansas Highway Patrol; Columbia County Sheriff’s Office; and Madison Police Department. Acting U.S. Attorney Chadwick M. Elgersma prosecuted the case.
According to Acting U.S. Attorney Elgersma: “This prosecution is part of the U.S. Department of Justice’s Homeland Security Task Force (HSTF) initiative established by Executive Order 14159, Protecting the American People Against Invasion.” Elgersma added: “The HSTF is a whole-of-government partnership dedicated to eliminating criminal cartels, foreign gangs, transnational criminal organizations and human smuggling and trafficking rings operating in the United States and abroad.” He continued: “Through historic interagency collaboration, the HSTF directs the full might of federal law enforcement towards identifying, investigating and prosecuting the full spectrum of crimes committed by these organizations which have long fueled violence and instability within our borders.” Elgersma further stated: “In performing this work the HSTF places special emphasis on investigating and prosecuting those engaged in child trafficking or other crimes involving children.” He concluded: “The HSTF further utilizes all available tools to prosecute and remove the most violent criminal aliens from the United States.”
