MT. VERNON, IL — A 53-year-old Mt. Vernon man was charged Thursday morning in Jefferson County Court with being an armed habitual criminal following a High Risk Team operation Wednesday morning. Anthony Dennis was arrested when around 6:30 Wednesday morning the Mt Vernon Police Department / Jefferson County Sheriff’s Department High Risk Team served a knock and announce search warrant at 1001 South 23rd in Mt Vernon.

The search warrant was obtained by detectives with the Mt Vernon Police Department / Jefferson County Sheriff’s Department Joint Narcotics Unit after their investigation revealed illegal narcotics were being sold from the residence. The High Risk Team was able to secure the residence without incident and took Dennis into custody. He was then transported to the Jefferson County Jail where he remains. Members of the detective division then began a search of the residence. During the search detectives located quantities of methamphetamine, drug packaging equipment and a firearm.

Dennis was formally charged Thursday in court with two Class X felonies for delivery of between 15 and 100 grams of meth and being an armed habitual criminal. He pleaded guilty in 2019 to a Class 3 charge of possessing less than 5 grams of meth, which had been reduced from a Class 1 felony charge of delivering between 5 and 15 grams of meth.

Dennis was arrested in that case in a similar operation by the High Risk Team at the same address. He was sentenced to 24 months probation in that case and was unsuccessfully discharged from probation in March.