BILLINGS — A 28-year-old Mexican national was sentenced to 70 months in federal prison for trafficking 442.7 grams of pure meth into Montana.
Marco Antonio Alvarez-Acevedo, who lives in Sunnyside, Wash., was convicted of possession with the intent to distribute meth and the conspiracy to commit money laundering.
The sentencing took place Wednesday in federal court with U.S. District Judge Susan Watters presiding, according to a release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Billings.
According to the release, in the summer of 2016, Drug Enforcement Administration agents learned Alvarez was a possible member of a drug-trafficking organization in Washington staste that transported meth to Billings.
Sources indicated Alvarez helped distribute methamphetamine to another drug trafficker to collect money.
An undercover agent communicated by phone with Alvarez and arranged a shipment of one pound of meth to Billings. The package of meth was seized in Billings, containing 442.7 grams of pure meth.
That amount of meth converts to 3,541 individual doses of pure meth that would have potentially reached drug users in Montana, the release said.
The agent continued to communicate with Alvarez and decided he would travel to Montana in April 2016 to deliver more meth and collect money. His car was stopped near Bozeman.
This case was investigated by the DEA; Internal Revenue Service; Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; Eastern Montana High-Intensity Drug Trafficking Area Task Force; Montana Highway Patrol; and multiple other federal, state, and local agencies.
Reporting by Andrea Lutz for MTN News
