Repeat drug offender from Peoria faces possible life sentence

PEORIA (25 News Now) - A federal jury has found a Peoria man with a long criminal record guilty on several drug and weapons charges.

Harold U. McGhee, 48, faces up to life in prison after the jury on Thursday convicted him on eight federal charges, including possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine, cocaine, heroin, and fentanyl.

McGhee was also convicted for possession of a firearm while trafficking drugs and for having a gun after prior felony convictions.

Federal prosecutors said investigators searched McGhee’s home in February of this year and found a loaded Glock 9 mm handgun with an extended magazine under his bed. The gun had been stolen three years ago in Evansville, Indiana, according to authorities.

Also in McGhee’s house, police said they found crack cocaine, meth, heroin, fentanyl and Xylazine, various tools of the drug trade, and $6,770 in suspected drug money.

When he was arrested, prosecutors said McGhee was on federal supervised release for a 2016 conviction for conspiracy to possess heroin with intent to distribute. He also has many other prior felony convictions, prosecutors said.

McGhee is scheduled to be sentenced March 15 by U.S. District Judge Michael Mihm.