Minneapolis Man Sentenced to 17 Years in Federal Prison for Directing Drug Conspiracy from inside the Grand Forks County Jail

FARGO – United States Attorney Mac Schneider, District of North Dakota, announced that on August 10, 2023, Timothy Edward Eason, age 57, Minneapolis, MN, was sentenced to 204 months imprisonment, 5 years supervised release and $200 Special Assessment for Conspiracy to Distribute Controlled Substances and Money Laundering Conspiracy.

On October 18, 2021, Eason was arrested on state drug charges and was held in the Grand Forks County Jail. The investigation revealed that from October 2021 to February 2022, Eason used communication facilities in the jail to arrange shipments of methamphetamine and fentanyl from Arizona to distributors in Fargo, North Dakota, Moorhead, Minnesota and elsewhere. Eason and other co-conspirators arranged payment for these controlled substances through cash applications such as Cash App and Chime.

Eason and Tiffany Marie Johnson were indicted by a Grand Jury in North Dakota on February 16, 2022. A Superseding Indictment was returned on March 16, 2022, adding additional defendants, Alfonso Demond Patrick and Ashtyn Lenea Gladue.

The investigation resulted in the identification and prosecution of the source of supply in Arizona. The other sentences handed down in this case include:

Alfonso Demond Patrick, 47, Phoenix, Arizona - 96 months imprisonment and 3 years supervised release.

Tiffany Marie Johnson, age 43, Moorhead, Minnesota - 54 months imprisonment and 3 years supervised release.

Ashtyn Lenea Gladue, age 26, Rolla, North Dakota - 42 months imprisonment and 3 years supervised release.

“Distributing dangerous drugs like fentanyl and meth puts lives at risk in our communities,” Schneider said. “Arranging shipments of these drugs from a county jail, as today’s sentence shows, is a surefire way to land an even longer stay in a federal prison. This result is a real credit to the teamwork of our local, state, and federal partners.”

This case was investigated by the Grand Forks Narcotics Task Force, the Grand Forks Police Department, Grand Forks Sheriff’s Department, Homeland Security Investigations, United States Postal Inspection Service, Cass County Drug Task Force and Moorhead Police Department.

The cases were prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Christopher C. Myers 

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