COUER D’ALENE - Loren Michelle Toelle, 52, of Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, was sentenced yesterday for conspiracy to distribute controlled substances and conspiracy to launder money, Acting U.S. Attorney Rafael Gonzalez announced. Chief U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill sentenced Loren Toelle to 212 months in federal prison to be followed by 5 years of supervised release. Toelle will also forfeit her interest in more than two million dollars of various properties, bank accounts, vehicles, cash and jewelry, all of which were the profits of the organization’s criminal actions or were intended to be used to promote the organization’s criminal actions.
Loren Toelle, also known as “Mama" by her co-conspirators and others in the drug world, pleaded guilty on Jan. 18, 2017. She admitted being the leader of an organization involving her children and friends. The group sold oxycodone, heroin, and methamphetamine in Idaho, Washington, Montana and North Dakota. Toelle’s brother, Robert Hill, was also sentenced Tuesday by Judge Winmill to 151 months in prison. Robert Hill pleaded guilty Nov. 18, 2016, to conspiracy to distribute controlled substances.
Loren Toelle’s ex-husband, Stanley Toelle, was also charged federally with conspiracy to launder money. On Tuesday, Stanley pleaded guilty to filing false documents with the Internal Revenue Service in 2012 and 2013. He will be sentenced on Aug. 15, 2017. As part of his plea agreement, Stanley Toelle also agreed to pay nearly $50,000 in back taxes and forfeited over $150,000 in assets derived from his wife’s drug trafficking.
In total, 11 individuals were arrested by federal agents in February of 2016. All have pleaded guilty and been sentenced except for Stanley Toelle. The arrests and indictments in this case are the result of a joint investigation and cooperative law enforcement efforts of the Organized Crime and Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF), comprised of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Drug Enforcement Administration, U.S. Marshals Service, Internal Revenue Service - Criminal Investigation, and the Department of Homeland Security, Homeland Security Investigations. The OCDETF investigation was spearheaded by the North Idaho Violent Crime Task Force, consisting of the FBI, the Coeur d’Alene Police Department, the Kootenai County Sheriff’s Office and the Post Falls Police Department.
Acting U.S. Attorney Gonzalez praised the dogged determination of the federal, state and local investigators and the prosecution team in their tireless pursuit of this drug trafficking organization. “Not only were the offenders sent to prison, they were divested of their ill-gotten gains," Gonzalez said.
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)
