LAFAYETTE, La. – United States Attorney Brandon B. Brown announced that Irvin J. Butler, 41, of St. Martinville, Louisiana, was sentenced today. United States District Judge Robert R. Summerhays sentenced him to 151 months (12 years, 7 months) in prison, followed by 5 years of supervised release, on drug trafficking charges. Butler pleaded guilty on May 20, 2022 to possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine.
On March 26, 2019, agents with the United States Postal Inspection Service intercepted a suspicious package which had been mailed from Arizona to an address in Lafayette, Louisiana. Agents deployed a canine trained in detecting narcotics who positively alerted on the seized package. A search warrant was obtained and later that day, agents conducted a controlled delivery of the package to the residence at the location specified by the sender. After the package was delivered, a female appeared and took possession of it. Agents were able to execute the search warrant and confirmed that the package contained approximately 1,858 grams of methamphetamine.
Further investigation by agents revealed that Butler had made two wire transfers to an individual in Arizona and had been tracking the package via the internet after it had been placed in the mail in Arizona. The female who took possession of the package admitted to agents that she had been dating Butler and he had packages sent to her residence. In addition, Butler sent a text message to the girlfriend that the package would be delivered to her residence that day. The seized substance was sent to the Acadiana Criminalistics Laboratory for analysis and the results confirmed that the substance was in fact methamphetamine.
The case was investigated by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service and was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Craig R. Bordelon.
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