Three men sentenced in major Flathead meth case
Pound quantities of meth brought here
Three men charged with distributing methamphetamine in the Flathead in 2010 and 2011 were sentenced last week in U.S. District Court in Missoula.
Thomas Bell, 45, of Tacoma, Wash., Brandon Torgenrud, 29, of Polson and Kalispell, and Lucas Brager, 30, Kalispell, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute meth. Bell was sentenced to 16 years 8 months in prison and 10 years of supervised release. Torgenrud was sentenced to seven years in prison and five years of supervised release. Brager was sentenced to 11 years 3 months in prison and seven years of supervised release.
According to court records, the Northwest Montana Drug Task Force, the Montana Division of Criminal Investigation and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security began a joint investigation into meth distribution in the Flathead in 2011.
A confidential informant working for investigators purchased an eighth ounce of meth from Torgenrud for $300 on two occasions in September 2011 and half an ounce of meth from Torgenrud for $900 in October 2011.
Shortly after, Torgenrud admitted to investigators that he had received 5 to 10 ounces of meth a week over the past two months. Prior to that, he said, he had received two pounds of meth at least five to six times that was distributed around Western Montana.
Prosecutors maintain they were prepared to prove at trial that Torgenrud had received 40 to 80 ounces of meth from Bell from August through October 2011, and another source was prepared to testify that he or she received “numerous pounds” of meth from Bell during 2010 and 2011.
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Bell’s and Torgenrud’s cases were linked to Diane Walters, aka Diane Alsop, 36, of Bonney Lake, Wash. Walters formerly lived in the Hungry Horse and Martin City and is a 1994 Columbia Falls High School graduate.
She and her boyfriend at the time of her arrest, Derek Heft, 27, of Kalispell, pleaded guilty in July to conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine. Heft also pleaded guilty to possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime.
According to court records, on Oct. 24, 2011, Northwest Montana Drug Task Force agents followed Bell’s rental vehicle from his home in western Washington to a store in Kalispell. Heft’s vehicle pulled up alongside, Bell got inside Heft’s vehicle, and Walters went inside the store.
When the agents approached Heft’s vehicle, Heft got out and was searched. He was allegedly carrying a loaded handgun, extra magazines, a knife and $4,118 in cash. A search of Bell uncovered a glass pipe with meth residue and $3,292 in cash.
A woman in Heft’s vehicle, Sarah Miller, 19, of Bonney Lake, tried to walk away from Heft’s vehicle and was arrested. A woman in Bell’s vehicle, Clarissa Martin, 31, of Puyallup, Wash., was also arrested. Walters was arrested in the store.
During interviews, Heft admitted purchasing meth from Bell, and Walters admitted helping Heft. Miller and Martin admitted helping Bell sell meth in the Flathead, and Miller turned over $990 in cash to the agents.
A search of Bell’s vehicle allegedly turned up less than 1 1/2 ounces of meth, $13,650 in cash and a silver handgun with the serial numbers filed off. A search of Heft’s vehicle allegedly turned up two shotguns, a pistol, more than 1 1/2 pounds of meth and meth paraphernalia.
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Additional meth cases from the Flathead are linked to Bell and Torgenrud. On July 10, Brandy Burkowski, 26, of Trego, pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Missoula to conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine.
Prosecutors maintain they were prepared to prove at trial that Burkowski and Lucas Brager were trafficking pound quantities of meth from California to Flathead County.
On Aug. 17, 2011, agents investigating a burglary in Evergreen arrested Burkowski and Brager in a Ford truck registered to Torgenrud. Both gave false names to sheriff’s deputies. Burkowski, Brager and a third person were suspects in the burglary.
A search of the truck uncovered three jewel bags of heroin, four jewel bags of meth, a jewel bag of miscellaneous pills, a used syringe, two glass pipes with drug residue, three jewel bags with drug residue, about 60 empty jewel bags, a digital scale and six cell phones.
Five days later, Burkowski admitted to investigators making several trips to California and bringing back pound quantities of meth to the Flathead. She said she started out dealing meth to Heft but later was receiving meth from him. She also said that for two years, she traveled once a week to Cody, Wyo., where she received 20 ounces of meth.
On Oct. 31, Brager admitted to investigators that he had been employed by Torgenrud, Heft and a third person as “muscle to assist in collecting drug debts” from meth distributors and customers. Brager said Heft often deposited large sums in a Wells Fargo bank account at the direction of the third individual.
Brager said he was paid about 30 to 50 percent of what he was able to collect from meth traffickers. He said he was paid in meth, cash or merchandise.