St. Louis Man Caught Twice with Guns and Drugs Sentenced to 200 Months in Prison

ST. LOUIS - U.S. District Judge Henry E. Autrey on Wednesday sentenced a man caught twice with guns and drugs on the same block in St. Louis to 200 months iin prison.

At Irven L. White's trial in U.S. District Court in St. Louis in October, evidence and testimony showed that on Nov. 1, 2023, a St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department officer saw White conducting what appeared to be a hand-to-hand drug transaction in the 4400 block of Farlin Avenue. When other officers approached, White fled, discarding a firearm, but he was immediately detained. Officers found fentanyl, cocaine and cocaine base. On August 26, 2024, officers were notified that White, who had an outstanding warrant for the November 1 incident, was again conducting a hand-to-hand drug transaction in the same block. He fled officers again, leaving behind a bag containing two guns. He was arrested in a nearby home, where officers found fentanyl and cocaine base.

White has multiple prior felony convictions and is thus barred from possessing firearms. Among his prior convictions is one for second degree murder involving a drug-linked shooting in the 4400 block of Farlin Avenue on Aug. 4, 1997. At the time of the Nov. 1, 2023, incident, he was on supervised release from a 2009 federal conviction for being a felon in possession of a firearm - an offense that occurred in the same block of Farlin.

White, 47, of St. Louis, was found guilty at trial of six felonies: two counts each of possession with the intent to distribute fentanyl, possession with the intent to distribute cocaine base and being a felon in possession of a firearm.

The St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives investigated the case. Assistant U.S. Attorney Christian Goeke prosecuted the case.