Omaha Man Sentenced to 151 Months for Conspiring to Distribute Methamphetamine

Acting United States Attorney Susan Lehr announced that James Graves, 51, of Omaha, Nebraska, was sentenced on today in federal court in Omaha for conspiring to distribute and possess with intent to distribute methamphetamine. Chief United States District Judge Robert F. Rossiter, Jr. sentenced Graves to imprisonment for 151 months. Upon release from prison, Graves will be required to complete a 5-year term of supervised release. There is no parole in the federal system.

On September 27, 2022, investigators executed a warrant to search a residence on South 45th Street in Omaha, where Graves and Joshua Finken resided. Graves was present at the time of the search and admitted to investigators that he purchased distribution quantities of methamphetamine from Finken over the preceding six months.

Investigators found a safe in Graves’s upstairs bedroom containing a quantity of methamphetamine. Finken resided in the basement, where investigators found several packages of methamphetamine and more than $17,000 in drug proceeds collocated in another safe. Laboratory testing confirmed at least 295 grams of methamphetamine were recovered from the basement.

Finken was arrested nearly a month later on October 23, 2022, when Omaha Police Department officers responded to a motorcycle accident at South 45th and Leavenworth Streets in Omaha. When officers arrived, Finken was running away from the scene on foot, apparently injured. He left a backpack behind where the motorcycle crashed, which was searched by officers and was found to contain at least 159 grams of methamphetamine.

Joshua Finken’s jury trial is scheduled to begin on October 30, 2023.

This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation Transnational Organized Crime (TOC-West) Task Force and the Bellevue Police Department.