The United States Attorney's Office announced that during a federal court session in Missoula, on Feb. 14, 2013, before U.S. District Judge Dana L. Christensen, SHAHID SINDHU KHAN, a 39-year-old resident of Othello, Washington, pled guilty to conspiracy to distribute cocaine. Sentencing has been set for May 23, 2013. He is currently released on special conditions.
In an Offer of Proof filed by Assistant U.S. Attorney Tara L. Elliott, the government stated it would have proved at trial the following:
On Aug. 23, 2012, a Confidential Informant (CI) was scheduled to purchase cocaine from KHAN and Ijaz Khan Sindhu in Missoula. Prior to arriving in Montana, KHAN and Sindhu were stopped by Idaho police officers and it was later discovered that they had 10 ounces of cocaine in their car.
The CI would have testified that he purchased cocaine from Sindhu on numerous occasions between January and August of 2012, and usually purchased approximately 9 ounces of cocaine at a time. He would have further testified that KHAN was with Sindhu on at least 4 or 5 of those occasions and at least once KHAN took the money from the CI for the cocaine.
Sindhu pled guilty to federal charges.
KHAN faces possible penalties of a mandatory minimum of 5 years and could be sentenced to 40 years, a $5,000,000 fine, and 4 years supervised release.
The investigation was conducted by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
