BILLINGS - An Arizona woman who admitted driving 10 pounds of methamphetamine to Billings to make money was sentenced on January 25 to five years in prison and five years of supervised release, said U.S. Attorney Kurt Alme on Monday.
Leticia Aguirre Tyrrell, 36, of Tucson, had pleaded guilty earlier to possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine.
U.S. District Judge Susan Watters presided at sentencing.
During a drug trafficking investigation, task force agents worked with a confidential informant who arranged for a meth shipment to be delivered in Billings. On June 23, 2018, investigators learned that the courier’s name was “Leti" and that she had arrived at a Billings hotel. Agents arrested her and identified her as Leticia Aguirre Tyrrell.
Agents seized Tyrrell’s Ford Fusion and got a warrant to search the vehicle. Investigators found 10 pounds of meth in one large package in the rear passenger seating area of the vehicle. Ten pounds of meth is the equivalent of about 36,240 individual doses.
In an interview later, Tyrrell said she had made the trip to earn some money and was to be paid $5,000 for driving to Billings. The vehicle had been rented. Tyrrell obtained a box of what she believed to be meth from an unknown male in Phoenix before departing for Montana.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Tom Godfrey prosecuted the case, which was investigated by the Eastern Montana High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area Task Force.
The case is part of Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN), which is the centerpiece of the Department of Justice’s violent crime reduction efforts. PSN is an evidence-based program proven to be effective at reducing violent crime. Through PSN, a broad spectrum of stakeholders work together to identify the most pressing violent crime problems in the community and develop comprehensive solutions to address them. As part of this strategy, PSN focuses enforcement efforts on the most violent offenders and partners with locally based prevention and reentry programs for lasting reductions in crime.
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Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
