Ohio Man Sentenced to More Than 11 Years or Marijuana and Money Laundering Charges

United States Attorney Lesley A. Woods announced that Michael Garringer, 43, of Troy, Ohio, was sentenced on January 14, 2026, in federal court in Omaha, Nebraska, for conspiracy to distribute and possess with intent to distribute marijuana and money laundering. United States District Court Judge Brian C. Buescher sentenced Garringer to 135 months’ imprisonment. There is no parole in the federal system. After his release from prison, Garringer will begin a three-year term of supervised release.

Garringer was charged based on his involvement with a drug trafficking organization (DTO) that transported large quantities of marijuana and marijuana products, as well as the proceeds from the sale of those products, all across the country for more than 20 years. Garringer was involved in the DTO’s Midwest operations where a number of warehouses were used to distribute the marijuana products and proceeds. Garringer was responsible for managing warehouses in Chicago, Cincinnati, Nashville, and Florida, where loads of marijuana were delivered from California, then distributed to local customers. The proceeds from the sale of the marijuana were then collected and shipped back to California where it was distributed to other co-conspirators and owners of the marijuana. The investigation resulted in the seizure of thousands of pounds marijuana and marijuana products and more than $30 million in cash and assets purchased with the proceeds from the illegal sales.

This is the result of a long-term investigation that is part of the Homeland Security Task Force (HSTF) initiative established by Executive Order 14159, Protecting the American People Against Invasion. The HSTF is a whole-of-government partnership dedicated to eliminating criminal cartels, foreign gangs, transnational criminal organizations, and human smuggling and trafficking rings operating in the United States and abroad. Through historic interagency collaboration, the HSTF directs the full might of United States law enforcement towards identifying, investigating, and prosecuting the full spectrum of crimes committed by these organizations, which have long fueled violence and instability within our borders. In performing this work, the HSTF places special emphasis on investigating and prosecuting those engaged in child trafficking or other crimes involving children. The HSTF further utilizes all available tools to prosecute and remove the most violent criminal aliens from the United States.

This case was investigated by Homeland Security Investigations, United States Postal Inspection Service, Nebraska State Patrol, Lancaster County Sheriff’s Office, and various other state and local agencies across the United States.