Four individuals who flooded the Leech Lake Indian Reservation with methamphetamine were sentenced for their roles in a meth distribution conspiracy in federal court.
Miguel Rios-Quintero, 26; Hernesto J. Montes, 22; Ervian A. Gomez, 21; and Hannah L. Dalton, 26, all pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine and were sentenced before Senior Judge Michael J. Davis in U.S. District Court in Minneapolis, Acting United States Attorney Gregory G. Brooker stated in a news release.
According to the defendants' guilty pleas and documents filed in court, in March 2016, the four defendants conspired to distribute methamphetamine throughout the Leech Lake Indian Reservation and surrounding areas. On March 8, 2016, law enforcement officers conducted two simultaneous traffic stops of two vehicles traveling together from the Leech Lake Indian Reservation. As a result of the traffic stops on the two vehicles-occupied by Rios-Quintero, Montes and Gomez-law enforcement officers seized more than 1,400 grams of methamphetamine that had been thrown into a wooded area, 3.5 pounds of marijuana and more than $5,000 in cash. That same day, upon execution of a search warrant of co-defendant Dalton's residence, law enforcement officers recovered an additional 452 grams of methamphetamine, which as a street value of about $20,000.
This case is the result of an investigation conducted by the Red Lake Tribal Police Department, FBI Headwaters Safe Trails Task Force, Paul Bunyan Drug Task Force, Leech Lake Police
Department, Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, and the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
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Assistant U.S. Attorney Deidre Y. Aanstad prosecuted this case.
Rios-Quintero of Minneapolis was sentenced to 108 months in prison and three years of supervised release; Montes of Brooklyn Park was sentenced to 60 months in prison and three years of supervised release; Gomez of Minneapolis was sentenced to 78 months in prison and three years of supervised release; Dalton of Cass Lake was sentenced to 78 months in prison and three years of supervised release.
