United States Attorney Alison J. Ramsdell announced that a Kyle, South Dakota, man convicted of Conspiracy to Distribute a Controlled Substance was sentenced on June 23, 2022, by Judge Karen E. Schreier, U.S. District Court.
Chester Benjamin Apple, a/k/a Chester Janis, age 39, was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison, followed by five years of supervised release, and was ordered to pay a $100 special assessment to the Federal Crime Victims Fund.
Apple was indicted for the charge by a federal grand jury in March 2021 and pleaded guilty in December 2021. The conviction stems from Apple obtaining methamphetamine and distributing it in South Dakota from approximately January 2015 through March 2021.
The case was investigated by the Badlands Safe Trails Task Force, which includes the FBI, Bureau of Indian Affairs, Oglala Sioux Tribe Department of Public Safety, South Dakota Department of Criminal Investigation, and the Martin, South Dakota, Police Department. Assistant U.S. Attorney Heather Sazama prosecuted the case.
Apple was immediately turned over to the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service.