Man Pleads Guilty To Federal Drug Charges

A man who led Dubuque police on a high-speed chase has pleaded guilty to federal charges. 39 year old Richard Roberts of Chicago was convicted of one count of distributing crack near a playground and one count of being a felon in possession of a firearm. Roberts faces one to 40 years in prison for the drug charge, as well as up to a $2 million fine and a lifetime of supervised release following his prison term. Roberts faces up to 10 years in prison, a $250,000 fine and three years of supervised release on the gun charge. Roberts admitted in a plea agreement that he sold about a half-gram of crack to a confidential informant on January 26th near Jefferson Park in Dubuque. About a week later, police tracked Roberts’ car from Dubuque to Chicago. When he returned to Iowa on February 5th, officers stopped his vehicle after it crossed the bridge into Dubuque from Wisconsin. After an officer asked Roberts to exit his vehicle, Roberts put the car in gear and fled. He was apprehended after flipping his vehicle three-and-a-half miles away in Illinois.