A Decatur man will spend the next decade in federal prison. Coryell Henz, 45, was sentenced on October 20, 2026, in Springfield to 120 months — ten full years — for possessing with intent to distribute more than 500 grams of cocaine, the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Central District of Illinois announced. After prison, he must serve a further eight years of supervised release.

Source: U.S. Attorney's Office, Central District of Illinois

U.S. District Judge Sue E. Myerscough imposed the sentence. Henz had been indicted in August 2024 and pleaded guilty in June 2026, WCIA reported, so the case had been moving through the federal court in Springfield for more than two years before sentencing day.

Source: WCIA

The July 2023 traffic stop in Sangamon County

The case began on the road. In July 2023, Illinois State Police initiated a traffic stop of Henz in Sangamon County — the county that contains Springfield, the state capital, and the stretch of Interstate 55 that runs through it. After an initial search of his vehicle, Henz was arrested for possessing two kilograms of cocaine, the U.S. Attorney's Office said.

Source: U.S. Attorney's Office, Central District of Illinois

Two kilograms is four times the 500-gram amount named in the offence of conviction. Prosecutors then established where the load had come from: at the sentencing hearing, the government established that Henz had travelled to Texas to purchase the cocaine, and that he planned to distribute it in the Central District of Illinois — the federal district covering Decatur, Springfield and the surrounding part of the state.

The sentence, and what the law allowed

Under the statute, possessing 500 grams or more of cocaine with intent to distribute carries a prison term of not less than ten years and up to life, a fine of up to $20,000,000, and a supervised-release term of up to life, plus the $100 mandatory special assessment. Judge Myerscough's 120-month term sits at the bottom of that range — the ten-year statutory floor — with eight years of supervision to follow.

Source: U.S. Attorney's Office, Central District of Illinois

The investigation was carried out by the Illinois State Police and the Drug Enforcement Administration's Springfield Resident Office. The government was represented in court by Assistant U.S. Attorney Matthew Z. Weir.

Part of Project Safe Neighborhoods

The Justice Department said the case is part of Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN), the federal violent-crime reduction program. Under the department's description, PSN brings together all levels of law enforcement and the communities they serve to reduce violent crime and gun violence. The department launched its enhanced PSN strategy on May 26, 2021, built on community-based organisations, prevention and re-entry work, and focused enforcement against the most significant drivers of violent crime.

A Texas-to-Illinois supply run, stopped on the highway

Read the facts of this case together and they describe a pattern Central Illinois officers say they watch for: a long-distance buying trip to Texas, a multi-kilogram load, and an intended distribution point in mid-sized Illinois cities like Decatur. What ended the run was not a warehouse raid but a traffic stop on a Sangamon County road — a reminder, for the many Punjabi and other truckers and drivers who cross these same Interstates 55 and 57 corridors daily, that state police drug interdiction on Illinois highways regularly starts with an ordinary vehicle stop.

What happens next

Henz now begins serving the 120-month federal term. When it ends, the eight years of supervised release begin: he will live under court-set conditions and federal supervision, and a violation during that period can send him back before the court. No further hearing date was announced in the sentencing release.