Oregon Man Sentenced To Prison For Methamphetamine Charges

The United States Attorney's Office announced that during a federal court session in Missoula on March 28, 2014 before U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy, SHANNON LEROY RAMSLAND, 34, of Aloha, Oregon was sentenced to 188 months imprisonment and 5 years supervised release.

The sentence is in connection with Ramsland's December 2013 guilty plea to possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine.

In an Offer of Proof filed by Assistant U.S. Attorney Bryan Whittaker, the government stated that on or about May 29, 2013, a Helena Police Detective was at the Town Pump gas station in East Helena, Montana when he observed a white Ford F350 truck in the parking lot. At the time, the detective was driving an unmarked vehicle. The detective observed who he believed to be Ramsland who had an active warrant for his arrest from Oregon. The detective called in the license plate number on the truck and confirmed that it was Ramsland.

The detective continued to watch Ramsland and the truck as it left the gas station and headed west on Highway 12 toward Helena. The detective called for backup because previous interaction with law enforcement indicated Ramsland carried a gun with him and was known to go to lengths to evade apprehension by authorities.

The detective followed Ramsland's truck while he was waiting for backup. At one point he lost sight of the truck, but reacquired it as he observed it turning on Rimini Road. Two other deputies arrived and then attempted to make a traffic stop. The truck then began heading westbound on Highway 12 at a high rate of speed reaching 80 MPH. Ramsland was swerving back and forth between the two lanes as he headed up MacDonald Pass. He then suddenly turned in to the scenic turnout, turned around, and headed back down the pass traveling eastbound. He again accelerated to speeds over 80 MPH. Deputies deployed a spike strip, but Ramsland drove into the opposite lane of traffic to avoid hitting the spike strip. As he approached the bottom of the pass, again near Rimini Road, numerous law enforcement vehicles were at this intersection. Ramsland almost caused a head on collision with a patrol car as he turned off Highway 12 and up Rimini Road. Rimini Road is a dirt/gravel road with a speed limit of 35 MPH. Ramsland accelerated to 80 MPH. As he reached the Minnehaha turnoff, he slowed slightly to attempt to make the turn, but he lost control of his truck and crashed into the bridge guardrail.

Deputies blocked the truck in and ordered Ramsland out of the truck. He complied as was taken into custody.

A search warrant was issued in the Montana First Judicial District Court to be executed on Ramsland's 2000 White Ford F-350 being driven by Ramsland. The following day, agents searched the truck. Inside the truck were several bags on the rear driver's side passenger seat. Inside one of these bags was a green Tupperware style container and another zippered pouch. Inside of the zippered pouch was a nearly full large sized zip-lock style bag of a crystallized substance. There was also a second zip-lock bag with a single piece of the crystallized substance. Furthermore, there was a silver and purple colored AWS brand digital scale (with crystallized residue). Inside the Tupperware container was a third zip-lock bag with a much smaller amount of the crystallized substance, an empty zip-lock bag, a glass pipe with residue (commonly used to smoke meth) and various packaged cold medicines.