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Press Release

Three Time Drug Trafficking Felon Pleads Guilty to Meth Conspiracy

For Immediate Release
U.S. Attorney's Office, Northern District of Iowa
Caught in traffic stop with 1 ½ pounds of meth and three firearms

A man who conspired to distribute methamphetamine while possessing firearms pled guilty March 21, 2019, in federal court in Sioux City.

Brandon Lee Boone, 46, from Des Moines, Iowa, was convicted of conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine, possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime and possession of a stolen firearm.  Boone was previously convicted of manufacture/deliver/possession with intent to deliver methamphetamine in 2004 and possession of methamphetamine with intent to deliver in 2008, both in the Iowa District Court.  Boone was also previously convicted of possession of a firearm and ammunition by a felon in the United States District Court in 2009 and felony drug trafficking of methamphetamine in Minnesota in 2018.

At the plea hearing, Boone admitted his involvement in a conspiracy that distributed at least 15 kilograms of mixed methamphetamine from January 2018 through February 2018.  During a traffic stop, in Fort Dodge, Iowa, of a vehicle Boone was a passenger in on February 6, 2018, law enforcement seized over 800 grams of actual (pure) methamphetamine and three firearms, including a stolen AR-15 rifle with an extra capacity magazine.  Boone admitted he and another possessed the methamphetamine with intent to distribute it and aided and abetted another’s possession of firearms during the time and in furtherance of the conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine.    

Sentencing before United States District Court Chief Judge Leonard T. Strand will be set after a presentence report is prepared.  Boone remains in U.S. Marshals custody pending sentencing.  Boone faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 30 years’ imprisonment and a possible maximum sentence of life imprisonment, a $20,000,000 fine, and ten years up to life of supervised release following any imprisonment.

The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Shawn S. Wehde and was investigated by the Iowa Department of Narcotics Enforcement, Fort Dodge Police Department, Webster County Sheriff’s Office, Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office, and the Iowa Division of Criminalistics Investigation. 

Court file information at https://ecf.iand.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/login.pl

The case file number is 18-3004.  Follow us on Twitter @USAO_NDIA.

Updated March 25, 2019

Topic
Drug Trafficking