Billings Man Draws Prison Sentence For Methamphetamine Possession

The United States Attorney's Office announced that on March 20, 2014, KURT LEE WHITLING, 52, of Billings, was ordered to serve a term of 60 months in prison followed by 4 years supervised by U.S. District Judge Susan Watters. The sentence is a result of Whitling's October 2013 guilty plea to possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine.

In the prosecution's sentencing memorandum, Assistant U.S. Attorney Joe Thaggard states Tomas Alvarado and Eliseo Lopez Martinez were two drug dealers involved in the distribution of methamphetamine. In October 2012, they began to distribute methamphetamine in Billings, Montana.

Alvarado and Martinez acted as wholesale distributors through a series of subordinate drug dealers. Those lower-level dealers included Walter White and the Defendant.

Alvarado estimates he provided to the Defendant for distribution two to three pounds of a substance containing a detectable amount of methamphetamine. White has informed the authorities that he also provided more than 50 grams of a substance containing a detectable amount of methamphetamine to the Defendant for distribution.

An associate of White, Alvarado, and the Defendant has informed the authorities that the Defendant distributed methamphetamine for White to people in Billings and the surrounding areas.

John Doe (an unindicted coconspirator) has informed the authorities the Defendant distributed methamphetamine to users in the Billings area.