Brandon Wade Havens Sentenced In U.S. District Court

The United States Attorney's Office announced that during a federal court session in Missoula, on September 26, 2013, before U.S. District Judge Donald W. Molloy, BRANDON WADE HAVENS, a 28-year-old resident of Helena, was sentenced to a term of:

Prison: 180 months

Special Assessment: $200

Supervised Release: 5 years

HAVENS was sentenced in connection with his guilty plea to conspiracy to distribute heroin and possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime.

In an Offer of Proof filed by Assistant U.S. Attorney Tara J. Elliott, the government stated it would have proved at trial the following:

Investigation by the Federal Bureau of Investigation revealed that HAVENS had runners who traveled from California to Montana. One of his runners cooperated with law enforcement and made several recorded telephone calls to HAVENS regarding the purchase of cocaine, and at HAVENS' direction, made a payment to HAVENS' bank account for past monies due for cocaine and heroin.

HAVENS was arrested on November 11, 2012 on a state warrant in Missoula. HAVENS admitted to trafficking cocaine from Washington to Montana in 2010/2011. HAVENS estimated he distributed a total of 12.5 pounds of cocaine equally to five individuals. HAVENS met another individual in California in the summer of 2011, from whom he began purchasing cocaine and heroin. HAVENS purchased cocaine from California for the last 18 months, and heroin for the last 12 months.

In the last year, HAVENS increased his quantities to 7-9 ounces of heroin, and 10-12 ounces of cocaine, every two weeks. On two occasions, HAVENS paid one of his runners $1,000 to drive the drugs from California to Montana. The amount of heroin HAVENS admitted to trafficking is well above one kilogram.

Because there is no parole in the federal system, the "truth in sentencing" guidelines mandate that HAVENS will likely serve all of the time imposed by the court. In the federal system, HAVENS does have the opportunity to earn a sentence reduction for "good behavior." However, this reduction will not exceed 15% of the overall sentence.

The investigation was conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.