St. Louis County man sentenced to 15 years in prison for drug dealing

Date: Jan. 15, 2026

Contact: newsroom@ci.irs.gov

ST. LOUIS – U.S. District Judge Henry E. Autrey on Thursday sentenced a man from St. Louis County, Missouri who sold fentanyl and other drugs to 15 years in prison.

Dennis M. Davis pleaded guilty in September to one count of conspiracy to distribute and possess with the intent to distribute fentanyl. He admitted that after an investigation that began in 2019, he was caught buying drugs from a Mexican source of supply and then returning some of the drug proceeds to a courier.

On Oct. 6, 2023, investigators conducted a court-approved search of Davis’ home in St. Louis County and found fentanyl, three handguns and $6,679 in cash. At a stash house in St. Louis used by Davis, they found a money counter, scales, kilograms of fentanyl and other drugs, four rifles and a handgun.

“This case is another example of good task force work fueled by cooperation between both local and federal law enforcement agencies,” said IRS-CI St. Louis Special Agent in Charge William Steenson. “IRS-CI’s role in narcotics investigations is to follow the money so we can disrupt and dismantle drug trafficking organizations. We’re proud to provide our financial expertise as we work alongside our law enforcement partners to bring criminals to justice.”

“Dennis Davis had enough fentanyl in his stash house to kill every single resident in the city of St. Louis,” Drug Enforcement Administration St. Louis Field Division Special Agent in Charge Michael Davis said. “He was a threat to our city, pushing poisons, destroying lives and all the while lining his pockets with proceeds. Today’s sentencing demonstrates that this type of behavior will not be tolerated in our city, our state or our nation.”

IRS – Criminal Investigations, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the St. Louis County Police Department and the U.S. Marshals investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney James Delworth prosecuted the case.

This effort is part of an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF) operation. OCDETF identifies, disrupts, and dismantles the highest-level criminal organizations that threaten the United States using a prosecutor-led, intelligence-driven, multi-agency approach.

IRS Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI) is the law enforcement arm of the IRS, responsible for conducting financial crime investigations, including tax fraud, narcotics trafficking, money laundering, public corruption, healthcare fraud, identity theft and more. IRS-CI special agents are the only federal law enforcement agents with investigative jurisdiction over violations of the Internal Revenue Code, obtaining a 90% federal conviction rate. The agency has 19 field offices located across the U.S. and 14 attaché posts abroad.