A 34-year-old California man was convicted for trafficking methamphetamine in the Flathead Valley during a three-day trial in U.S. District Court in Missoula.
Jeremy David Medbery was convicted on Nov. 6 and will be sentenced in February 2020. Medbery could face up to 40 years in prison and $5 million in fines.
According to court records, law enforcement received a tip about Medbery and another man, Christopher George Nomura, distributing methamphetamine in January 2016. A month later, an undercover cop purchased methamphetamine from Medbery, who was arrested soon after. During the course of the investigation, law enforcement learned that Medbery and Nomura had brought a pound of methamphetamine — about the equivalent of 3,624 doses — from California to Montana.
Nomura was convicted in 2018 and sentenced to 10 years in prison.
“Mr. Medbery pushed this highly-addictive drug in our community for distribution. Drug traffickers will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. I want to thank Assistant U.S. Attorney Tom Bartleson and the prosecution team, along with the Montana Division of Criminal Investigation, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and Homeland Security Investigations, for their work on this case,” said U.S. Attorney Kurt Alme following the conviction.