Georgia meth trafficker sentenced to prison for drug dealing in Billings

BILLINGS —A Georgia man who admitted to a methamphetamine trafficking crime after law enforcement found four pounds of the drug in his Billings motel room was sentenced today to 70 months in prison to be followed by four years of supervised release, U.S. Attorney Leif M. Johnson said.

Josue Mikael Nunez, 21, of Carrollton, Georgia, pleaded guilty in July to possession with intent to distribute meth as charged in a superseding information.

U.S. District Judge Dana L. Christensen presided.

The government alleged in court documents that Nunez brought pounds of meth to Billings to sell as part of a large transnational drug trafficking organization. In April, agents with the Eastern Montana High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area Task Force began working with a confidential informant to identify members of the drug trafficking organization. The confidential informant, using a social media messenger app, set up a controlled drug transaction for two ounces of meth. The confidential informant was directed to an address on Overland Avenue, where Nunez delivered two ounces of meth in exchange for cash. Agents monitored the deal, and the meth was recovered. Surveillance on Nunez led to a Billings motel. Agents executed a search warrant on Nunez’s room and found four pounds of meth, two cell phones, $1,780 and other items. Four pounds of meth is the equivalent of about 14,496 doses. Nunez was seen leaving the motel as agents were preparing to execute the warrant and he was detained without incident.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Colin M. Rubich prosecuted the case, which was investigated by the Eastern Montana High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area Task Force and the FBI’s Western Transnational Organized Crime Task Force.

This case is part of Project Safe Neighborhoods, a U.S. Department of Justice initiative to reduce violent crime. Through PSN, federal, tribal, state and local law enforcement partners in Montana focus on violent crime driven by methamphetamine trafficking, armed robbers, firearms offenses and violent offenders with outstanding warrants.

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