Department of Justice

SOUTH BEND – Donta Bridges, 39 years old, of LaPorte, Indiana, was sentenced by United States District Court Chief Judge Jon E. DeGuilio after being found guilty by a jury in October 2022 of heroin distribution, attempted heroin distribution, possession with intent to distribute controlled substances, and being a felon in possession of a firearm, announced United States Attorney Clifford D. Johnson.

Bridges was sentenced to 210 months in prison followed by 6 years of supervised release.

According to documents in the case, in the fall of 2019, Bridges was selling various substances to include heroin, fentanyl, methamphetamine, and the horse tranquilizer xylazine. During one sale, Bridges told a customer to be careful with the drugs because Bridges knew that someone had overdosed on the drugs he was selling. During the execution of a search warrant at his house, investigators recovered a gun along with heroin, cocaine, and methamphetamine. Bridges was sentenced on the instant offense as a career offender based on his two prior felony convictions for controlled substance offenses; possession with intent to distribute crack cocaine and heroin distribution.

This case was investigated by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives with the assistance of the LaPorte County Drug Task Force. This case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Kimberly L. Schultz and Jerome W. McKeever.

This case is part of Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN), a program bringing together all levels of law enforcement and the communities they serve to reduce violent crime and gun violence, and to make our neighborhoods safer for everyone. On May 26, 2021, the Department launched a violent crime reduction strategy strengthening PSN based on these core principles: fostering trust and legitimacy in our communities, supporting community-based organizations that help prevent violence from occurring in the first place, setting focused and strategic enforcement priorities, and measuring the results.