Month: November 2022

Source: United States Department of Justice News

RAPID CITY – United States Attorney Alison J. Ramsdell announced today that a Porcupine, South Dakota, man convicted of Involuntary Manslaughter was sentenced on November 21, 2022, by U.S. District Judge Jeffrey L. Viken.

Cassian Richards, 21, was sentenced to 30 months in federal prison, followed by three years of supervised release, and ordered to pay a $100 special assessment to the Federal Crime Victims Fund.

Richards was indicted for Involuntary Manslaughter by a federal grand jury in March of 2022. He pleaded guilty on July 29, 2022.

The conviction stems from Richards who, while in possession of a loaded semi-automatic firearm, got into an altercation at a home near Porcupine in February of 2022. Following the altercation, Richards fled the home with the firearm and got into a vehicle. While getting into the vehicle, Richards carelessly and recklessly handled the firearm and caused the firearm to discharge. The discharged bullet struck another male within the vehicle. The victim succumbed to his injuries within moments of being shot.

This case was investigated by the Oglala Sioux Tribe Department of Public Safety and the FBI. Assistant U.S. Attorney Heather Sazama prosecuted the case.

Richards was immediately remanded to the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service.

Source: United States Department of Justice News

Seattle – A 31-year-old Renton, Washington man was sentenced this week in U.S. District Court in Seattle to ten years in prison for his role in a violent, cartel connected drug distribution ring, announced U.S. Attorney Nick Brown.  Benjamin Fuentes was indicted in July 2020, along with more than a dozen coconspirators following an extensive, wire-tap investigation. U.S. District Judge John C. Coughenour imposed the prison term and four years of supervised release to follow incarceration.

“This defendant was immersed in the violence of this drug trafficking ring – at one point firing a gun into the air and threatening to kill everyone inside a residence as part of his debt collection threats,” said U.S. Attorney Nick Brown.  “He and his coconspirators distributed massive amounts of methamphetamine, heroin, cocaine, and potentially deadly fentanyl pills in King, Pierce, Lewis, and Snohomish Counties.  This sentence removes him from the community he damaged with his violent drug trade.”

According to records filed in the case, Fuentes worked as a drug distributor and debt collector for the drug trafficking organization that was connected to the violent CJNG cartel in Mexico.  Fuentes also served as a translator for leaders of the drug trafficking group when they could not understand English-speaking coconspirators.  During the wiretap, investigators repeatedly heard Fuentes discussing both drug distribution and obtaining firearms for violent debt collection on behalf of the organization.

When agents moved in on the drug ring they found methamphetamine, heroin, cocaine and fentanyl pills in a residence Fuentes shared with a DTO leader.  They also recovered four firearms, ballistic vests and $28,000 in cash.

In asking for a ten-year sentence Assistant United States Attorney Amy Jaquette wrote to the court, “This organization is one of the most violent our District has prosecuted. Given the extent of Fuentes’ involvement in drug distribution and his repeated role in violent debt collection for the conspiracy, a lengthy sentence is needed…. Fuentes also played an integral role in the DTO’s drug distribution – most notably, picking up a shipment of methamphetamine and 7,000 fentanyl pills for redistribution in our District. That quantity of fentanyl pills put innumerable lives at risk.”

This prosecution is part of an Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETF) investigation. OCDETF identifies, disrupts, and dismantles the highest-level drug traffickers, money launderers, gangs, and transnational criminal organizations that threaten the United States by using a prosecutor-led, intelligence-driven, multi-agency approach that leverages the strengths of federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies against criminal networks.

The investigation was conducted by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration’s (DEA) Tacoma Resident Office in partnership with Tahoma Narcotics Enforcement Team (TNET), Kent Police Department, Homeland Security Investigations, SeaTac Police Department, Thurston County Narcotics Team (TNT), the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Bureau of Alcohol Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), and Internal Revenue Service Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI).

The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorneys Amy Jaquette and C. Andrew Colasurdo.

Source: United States Department of Justice News

Tennessee State Senator Brian Kelsey pleaded guilty today to violating campaign finance laws and conspiring to defraud the Federal Election Commission (FEC) as part of a scheme to benefit his 2016 campaign for U.S. Congress.

According to court documents, Kelsey, 44, of Germantown, admitted that he conspired to, and did, secretly and unlawfully funnel money from multiple sources, including his own Tennessee State Senate campaign committee, to his authorized federal campaign committee. Kelsey, who was a practicing attorney, and his co-conspirators, including Joshua Smith, also caused a national political organization to make illegal and excessive contributions to Kelsey’s federal campaign committee by secretly coordinating with the organization on advertisements supporting Kelsey’s federal candidacy, which caused false reports of contributions and expenditures to be filed with the FEC.

Kelsey and his co-conspirators orchestrated the concealed movement of $91,000 – $66,000 of which came from Kelsey’s State Senate campaign committee, and $25,000 of which came from a nonprofit corporation that publicly advocated on legal justice issues – to a national political organization for the purpose of funding advertisements that urged voters to support Kelsey in the August 2016 primary election. Kelsey and his co-conspirators also caused the political organization to make $80,000 worth of contributions to Kelsey’s federal campaign committee in the form of coordinated expenditures.

Kelsey pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud the FEC and aiding and abetting the acceptance of excessive contributions on behalf of a federal campaign. He is scheduled to be sentenced on June 9, 2023, and faces a maximum penalty of five years in prison on each count. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence after considering the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and other statutory factors.

Joshua Smith pleaded guilty last month to aiding and abetting the solicitation, receipt, direction, transfer, and spending of soft money in connection with a federal election. He is awaiting sentencing.

Assistant Attorney General Kenneth A. Polite, Jr. of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division, U.S. Attorney Mark H. Wildasin for the Middle District of Tennessee, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Tennessee, and Special Agent in Charge Douglas Korneski of the FBI Memphis Field Office made the announcement.

The FBI is investigating the case.

Trial Attorney John Taddei of the Criminal Division’s Public Integrity Section, Assistant U.S. Attorney Amanda Klopf for the Middle District of Tennessee, and Assistant U.S. Attorney David Pritchard for the Western District of Tennessee are prosecuting the case.