KC Reporter

An Olathe, Kansas man has been sentenced to 20 years in federal prison for his involvement in a fentanyl distribution conspiracy that led to an overdose death. Jacob A. Block, aged 27, received the sentence from U.S. Chief District Judge Beth Phillips on January 27. The court also ordered Block to forfeit $10,000, representing proceeds from illegal drug trafficking.

Block had previously pleaded guilty on February 1, 2024, to charges of participating in a conspiracy to distribute fentanyl and distributing fentanyl. He admitted delivering 10 M-30 pills containing fentanyl to a confidential informant and possessing an additional 150 to 300 M-30 pills at the time of the transaction. Block also confessed to selling a co-defendant approximately seven grams of powder fentanyl and 50 M-30 pills five to seven days a week over six or seven months.

All thirteen defendants involved in this case have pleaded guilty, with Block being the ninth defendant sentenced. Co-defendant Dmitry Cattell, aged 25 from Kansas City, Missouri, was sentenced on May 2, 2024, to 21 years in federal prison without parole for leading the drug-trafficking conspiracy and illegally possessing a firearm. Evidence presented at Cattell’s sentencing linked him to a fatal fentanyl overdose on May 18, 2020; however, the victim's identity remains undisclosed in court documents.

Assistant U.S. Attorneys Maureen Brackett and Stephanie Bradshaw are prosecuting this case following investigations by multiple law enforcement agencies including the FBI and several local police departments across Missouri and Kansas.

This prosecution is part of the Department of Justice’s Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF) Co-located Strike Forces Initiative. This initiative establishes permanent multi-agency task force teams working together against priority targets and their illicit financial networks. The OCDETF program aims to identify and dismantle significant drug trafficking organizations that threaten public safety and national security.