His wife and co-defendant, Shantel Marie Powell, 38, of Crestview, was sentenced to one year of home confinement as a part of a five-year probationary term after having been found guilty by a jury of making a false statement to a federal agent.
The sentences were announced Wednesday by John P. Heekin, U.S. attorney for the Northern District of Florida.
“Fentanyl has an undeniably devastating impact on our communities,” Heekin said in a news release. “Anyone caught peddling this deadly weapon of mass destruction will be aggressively prosecuted by my office as we continue to work arm-in-arm with our state and federal law enforcement partners to rid our streets of this poison. This case is yet another successful prosecution under Operation Take Back America, through which President Donald J. Trump and Attorney General Pam Bondi have deployed the full might of the Department of Justice to take down and eliminate the drug traffickers terrorizing our communities.”
Evidence admitted at Shantel Powell’s trial and court documents established that on Jan. 31, 2025, following federal search warrants executed simultaneously at an outbuilding in Crestview where Kevin Powell regularly stored and distributed drugs and the Powells’ home in Pensacola, law enforcement seized fentanyl; evidence that Kevin Powell was packaging and preparing drugs for sale, including two large kilogram presses; a total of five firearms; and various amounts of ammunition.
One of the firearms was a privately made firearm with no manufacturer markings or serial number, often referred to as a “ghost gun.” While the search warrant was being executed, Shantel Powell told law enforcement that all the firearms were hers, and she willfully falsely told a federal task force officer that she had purchased the privately made firearm at a particular gun store in Crestview, which was a lie intended to obstruct the investigation of this case.
The convictions were the result of a joint investigation by the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the Okaloosa County Sheriff’s Office, the Crestview Police Department, and the Niceville Police Department, with assistance from the Gulf Coast High Intensity Drug Trafficking Areas Task Force. The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Alicia Forbes.
This case is part of Operation Take Back America, a nationwide initiative that marshals the full resources of the Department of Justice to repel the invasion of illegal immigration, achieve the total elimination of cartels and transnational criminal organizations, and protect our communities from the perpetrators of violent crime, human and drug trafficking.
