cherokee man pleads guilty to manufacturing meth
Contact: Peter Deegan
A man who conspired to distribute pseudoephedrine and manufacture and distribute methamphetamine pled guilty on June 1, 2010, in federal court in Sioux City.
Richard Allen Hammond, age 51, from Cherokee, Iowa, was convicted of one count of conspiracy to manufacture and distribute methamphetamine within 1000 feet of a school and conspiracy to distribute and possess pseudoephedrine with the intent to manufacture methamphetamine after being previously convicted of a felony drug offense.
In a plea agreement, Hammond admitted that, between September 2008 and September 30, 2009, he and others manufactured methamphetamine and distributed methamphetamine, pseudoephedrine pills, and anhydrous ammonia at his residence in Cherokee that was within 1000 feet of the Roosevelt Elementary School. In September of 2009, Hammond was videotaped by law enforcement officers stealing anhydrous ammonia from a tank in a field.
Sentencing before United States District Court Judge Mark W. Bennett will be set after a presentence report is prepared. Hammond remains in custody of the United States Marshal pending sentencing. Hammond faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 20 years’ imprisonment and a possible maximum sentence of life imprisonment, an $8,000,000 fine, a $100 special assessment, and a term of supervised release of at least 10 years up to life.
The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Kevin C. Fletcher and was investigated by the Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office, Cherokee Police Department, Clay County Sheriff’s Office, and Iowa Division of Narcotics Enforcement.
Court file information is available at https://ecf.iand.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/login.pl. The case file number is CR10-4004-MWB.
