What’s worse than being arrested after a multi-jurisdictional drug enforcement task force executes a search warrant on your home? 

Having state and federal law enforcement agents looking for evidence in the drug investigation seize your cell phone and allegedly discover a slew of child pornographic images on it.

Wesley Noonan, 50, of Bloomington, was sentenced to four years in federal prison May 8 after a judge found he had assisted his wife, Christina, in an operation that mailed 1,750 parcels containing 250,000 illicit pills to buyers in all 50 states between February 2021 and April 2022. The drugs shipped included Hydrocodone, Percocet, Tramadol, Zolpidem, Cathinone, Adderall, Lorazepam and other controlled substances. 

Christina Noonan, 44, pleaded guilty in August, and Wesley Noonan pleaded guilty in November. Christina Noonan received an 84-month prison sentence. Besides the prison terms, U.S. District Judge James Shadid also ordered them both to serve five years of court supervision upon release. 

Welsey Noonan’s attorney noted in his sentencing memo seeking a reduced sentence that his client has worked steadily as an “appraisal specialist” since 1997, and most recently as a parts manager for an automotive dealership.  

His attorney told the court that, while Wesley Noonan “knew parts of what his wife was doing in the

Wesley Noonan (Photo courtesy of McLean County Sheriff)

residence,” and that he assisted with handling parcels and mailing them at times, “most of the criminal activity occurred while he was at work.”  

“Once released he intends to return to working with his brother as an appraiser,” his attorney told the judge. 

However, exactly when Noonan will be released from custody, federal or state, is an open question. Police say during the execution of the search warrant by the Illinois State Police Drug Task Force 6 and the DEA in April 2022, Noonan’s phone was found to allegedly contain child pornographic images.  

The phone was later transferred to officers in the Bloomington Police Department, who conducted an investigation that led to Noonan’s indictment on 59 counts of possessing child pornography, each a Class 2 felony.  

Court documents indicate that Noonan has been in custody in the McLean County Jail in lieu of $1 million bond since April 7, 2022. His next court date is May 29. 

Bloomington Police Chief Jamal Simington called the child pornography Noonan is accused of possessing “the worst crime type for any child to experience and causes devastation for a lifetime.”  

Besides the Illinois State Police and the DEA, Chief Simington thanked the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children for their collaboration. 

In their drug operation, the Noonans utilized a phone application to coordinate with an overseas source of supply to obtain parcels of pills that they then repackaged and mailed to customers throughout the United States. 

When state and federal law enforcement executed a search warrant on the house on April 6, 2022, they seized approximately 1,750 pills marked as Adderall. However, the pills subsequently tested positive as para-Fluorofentanyl, an “opioid analgesic analogue of fentanyl.”  

Prosecutor and assistant U.S. Attorney Ronald L. Hanna said that the huge disparity between the labelling on the parcel and what was actually in it “shows why taking illegally obtained pills is extremely dangerous.” 

“As documented in DEA’s One Pill Can Kill campaign, an illegally obtained pill, often manufactured overseas, can appear to be one substance, like Adderall, and in fact be something very different and deadly like fentanyl,” Hannah said.