fort dodge man pleads guilty to meth conspiracy
Contact: Peter Deegan
A man who conspired to manufacture and distribute methamphetamine pled guilty on March 25, 2010, in federal court in Sioux City.
Tony Brand, 40, from Fort Dodge, Iowa, was convicted of one count of conspiracy to manufacture and distribute methamphetamine and one count of manufacturing and attempting to manufacture methamphetamine. Brand was previously convicted of possession of pseudoephedrine with the intent to manufacture methamphetamine on July 30, 2001, in the Iowa District Court for Wright County. Brand was also previously convicted of possession of a precursor with intent to manufacture methamphetamine on January 13, 2005, and failure to affix drug tax stamp on December 13, 1999, both in Webster County, Iowa, District Court.
At the plea hearing, Brand admitted involvement in a conspiracy that manufactured and distributed more than 50 grams of actual (pure) methamphetamine in the Fort Dodge area from about January 2009 through October 2009.
Sentencing before United States District Court Judge Mark W. Bennett will be set after a presentence report is prepared. Brand remains in custody of the United States Marshal pending sentencing. On the conspiracy conviction, Brand faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 20 years’ imprisonment and a possible maximum sentence of life imprisonment, an $8,000,000 fine, a special assessment of $100, and at least 10 years up to life of supervised release following any imprisonment. On the manufacturing conviction, Brand faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years’ imprisonment and a possible maximum sentence of life imprisonment, a $4,000,000 fine, a special assessment of $100, and at least 8 years up to life of supervised release following any imprisonment.
The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Shawn S. Wehde and was investigated as part of the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF) program of the United States Department of Justice through a cooperative effort of the Fort Dodge Police Department, the Webster County Sheriff’s Office, the Iowa Division of Narcotics Enforcement, and the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation.
Court file information is available at https://ecf.iand.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/login.pl. The case file number is 09-3042.
