Convictions on drug charges result in prison for residents

CAPE GIRARDEAU - Two Sikeston men were sentenced to prison after pleading guilty to drug charges.

Orlando M. Perkins, 31, was sentenced to 168 months on each of six counts of distributing cocaine base (crack cocaine) by U.S. District Judge E. Richard Webber Monday. Perkins was convicted of selling cocaine base to a confidential informant in Sikeston on six separate occasions between July 1999 and January 2001.

The investigation was conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Southeast Missouri Drug Task Force, Bootheel Drug Task Force and the Missouri State Highway Patrol. John A. Chadd, 42, was sentenced to 112 months in prison on one count of conspiracy to unlawfully possess pseudoephedrine.

Chadd previously admitted that on March 4, he and Donnie Williams went to a store in Cape Girardeau to buy pseudoephedrine pills. Both men bought two boxes of 48 pills. They had previously gathered several boxes of pills from other stores and planned to manufacture methamphetamine.

After leaving the store, the men were stopped by officers on Interstate 55 in Scott County. A search of the vehicle turned up several items associated with making the illicit drug.

Williams pleaded guilty June 24 and received 92 months in prison Sept. 29.