Source: Office of United States Attorneys
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. On February 10, 2025, Bryan Cornelius, 34, of Knoxville, was sentenced to a total term of 45 years in prison by the Honorable Thomas A. Varlan, United States District Judge, in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Tennessee at Knoxville. Following his imprisonment, Cornelius will be on supervised release for five years.
The sentencing follows Cornelius’s federal trial in April 2022, during which a jury convicted him of conspiring to distribute various controlled substances, including methamphetamine, heroin, fentanyl, and marijuana. The evidence presented at trial included wiretaps of multiple cellular phones, multiple search warrants at various Knoxville residences, narcotics, firearms, and cash seizures. The evidence showed that Cornelius, a member of the Gangster Disciples street gang, was ordering narcotics from different sources of supply in California and receiving packages of methamphetamine and marijuana through the United States Postal Service (USPS), Fed-Ex, and UPS throughout 2019 and that he maintained multiple addresses across Knoxville to stash his narcotics, firearms, and cash to facilitate his narcotics distribution. In addition, the evidence showed that, in furtherance of his drug trafficking, at approximately 2:45 p.m. on November 21, 2019, Cornelius, along with two others, drove by the Stop-n-Go on Brooks Avenue and Cornelius and fired fifteen rounds of 7.62mm into a Mercedes-Benz. The driver sustained two non-life-threatening gunshot wounds. The jury also convicted Cornelius of conspiracy to commit money laundering. According to court documents, twenty-two other charged members of the conspiracy previously pleaded guilty.
In determining the sentence, Judge Varlan took into account several aggravating factors, including Cornelius’s role as a leader and organizer of the crimes, his credible threats of violence made against other people in connection with his crimes, and his use of guns and violence in connection with his crimes.
U.S. Attorney Francis M. Hamilton III of the Eastern District of Tennessee; Special Agent in Charge Joe Carrico of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and Tommy D. Coke of the U.S. Postal Inspector in Charge of the Atlanta Division, made the announcement.
This conviction and sentence resulted from an investigation conducted by the FBI HIDTA Task Force and the United States Postal Inspection Service (USPIS). The FBI HIDTA Task Force includes the Roane County Sheriff’s Office, Knoxville Police Department, Knox County Sheriff’s Office, Blount County Sheriff’s Office, and Sevier County Sheriff’s Office. The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation and the Drug Enforcement Administration, also assisted in this investigation by conducting drug analysis on seized narcotics in the case.
Assistant United States Attorneys Cynthia Davidson and Alan Kirk represented the United States.
This case was part of the Department’s Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF) and the HIDTA programs. OCDETF is the primary weapon of the United States against the highest-level drug trafficking organizations operating within the United States, importing drugs into the United States, or laundering the proceeds of drug trafficking. The HIDTA program enhances and coordinates drug control efforts among local, State, and Federal law enforcement agencies. The program provides agencies with coordination, equipment, technology, and additional resources to combat drug trafficking and its harmful consequences in critical regions of the United States.
This case is also part of Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN), the centerpiece of the Department of Justice’s violent crime reduction efforts. PSN is an evidence-based program proven to be effective at reducing violent crime. Through PSN, a broad spectrum of stakeholders working together to identify the most pressing violent crime problems in the community and develop comprehensive solutions to address them. As part of this strategy, PSN focuses enforcement efforts on the most violent offenders and partners with locally based prevention and reentry programs for lasting reductions in crime.
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