BILLINGS - A Billings man who admitted to trafficking drugs after he broke into the Drug Enforcement Administration’s building to see if agents had found the 10 pounds of meth hidden in his truck was sentenced Tuesday to five years in prison.
Anthony Jacob Johnson, 43, pleaded guilty in April to possession with intent to distribute meth, according to a press release from the U.S. Attorney General's Office.
In court documents, federal prosecutors alleged that in January 2021 an investigation into methamphetamine distribution led to Johnson as a source of supply. Agents determined that Johnson traveled to Colorado in March and again in April 2021.
When Johnson returned to Montana, a Montana Highway Patrol trooper conducted a traffic stop on his vehicle. Agents executed a search warrant on the vehicle and located 10 vacuumed sealed bricks of meth. The bricks totaled approximately 10.39 pounds of meth, which is the equivalent of about 37,653 doses.
In the early morning, the press release states, the DEA discovered a large hole in a garage door at its facility. Evidence showed that Johnson had gone to the facility the night before, cut a large hole in the garage and entered his seized vehicle while it was in DEA’s custody, hoping agents had not located the meth.
Johnson admitted he distributed approximately 80 pounds to 100 pounds of meth in the community over five months.
