GREAT FALLS – A Great Falls woman who admitted to dealing methamphetamine and heroin from a gas station and casino was sentenced today to 52 months in prison and to four years of supervised release, Acting U.S. Attorney Leif M. Johnson said.
Katrina Marie Bennett, 36, pleaded guilty on March 17 to possession with intent to distribute controlled substances.
Chief U.S. District Judge Brian M. Morris presided. Bennett was detained.
In court documents filed in the case, the government alleged that in the summer of 2019, law enforcement began receiving information that Bennett was trafficking meth and heroin in Great Falls. Investigators learned that Bennett was dealing drugs out of a gas station and used the casino as her office to conduct drug deals. Law enforcement made a series of undercover meth buys from Bennett and knew that she frequently traveled to Butte to engage in drug activities. In May 2020, law enforcement stopped Bennett’s car as she left Butte and searched it pursuant to a warrant. Bennett told officers she had returned from California the day before with a pound of meth, had already sold about seven ounces of meth in Butte and that another person had taken the other half-pound to Great Falls. Agents found meth and heroin during the search of the car.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Jessica A. Betley prosecuted the case, which was investigated by the Drug Enforcement Administration, Great Falls Police Department and Russell Country Drug Task Force.
This case is part of Project Safe Neighborhoods, a U.S. Department of Justice initiative to reduce violent crime. Through PSN, federal, tribal, state and local law enforcement partners in Montana focus on violent crime driven by methamphetamine trafficking, armed robbers, firearms offenses and violent offenders with outstanding warrants.
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