Two Cass County men have been sentenced to 20+ years in federal prison for their involvement in a fentanyl trafficking ring that resulted in numerous overdoses. Twenty-one-year-old Collin Jacob Clarken and 25-year-old Colby Ray Clarken were convicted of conspiring to distribute fentanyl, causing serious bodily injury or death. Collin Clarken was sentenced to 252 months in prison, and Colby Clarken was sentenced to 240 months. Authorities say the pair, along with three other co-defendants, obtained over 10,000 fentanyl pills from Omaha, Neb., and sold the pills in and around Cass County between August 2019 and June 2022. At least two overdose deaths are connected to the group’s trafficking. Thirty-three-year-old Cam Jahnke, 29-year-old Chase Jahnke, and 27-year-old Kelsi Thurman were each sentenced in May to more than a decade in federal prison. Agencies involved in this investigation include the Iowa Division of Narcotics Enforcement, Atlantic Police Department, Cass County Sheriff’s Office, Shelby County Sheriff’s Office, Southwest Iowa Narcotics Enforcement (SWINE) Task Force, Council Bluffs Police Department, Iowa Division of Intelligence, Iowa State Patrol, Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation Crime Lab, United States Postal Inspection Service, and the Omaha Police Department.
