Mount Prospect man sentenced to 10-plus years in prison for armed drug trafficking

A Mount Prospect man was sentenced to more than 10 years in prison after a federal jury convicted him of possessing multiple firearms while trafficking narcotics throughout the suburbs.

Omari Andrews Jr., 26, was sentenced to 10 years and three months in prison.

While he pleaded guilty prior to trial to charges of distributing fentanyl and heroin in Des Plaines, Villa Park and other suburbs between 2022 and 2023, a jury convicted him for possessing at least four firearms while trafficking fentanyl, heroin, cocaine, crack cocaine and marijuana in Mount Prospect in 2023, prosecutors said.

“The defendant possessed a small arsenal of guns and ammunition in his apartment to protect his drug trafficking activity,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Alejandro G. Ortega argued in the government’s sentencing memorandum. “Drugs, and especially fentanyl, are a scourge to the public health and to law enforcement across the country, and a stain on the community.”

Andrews has been in custody since his 2023 arrest. He is required to serve at least 85% of his sentence and will receive credit for time already served pretrial.