Victorville man sentenced to prison for trying to sell methamphetamine
Rene Ray De La Cruz
A Victorville man was sentenced to over 10 years in prison for attempting to sell a large amount of methamphetamine, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
On Friday, Judge John Gerrard sentenced Jason Smith, 48, to 132 months in prison.
After Smith completes his prison sentence, he will also serve five years on supervised release. There is no parole in the federal system, the DOJ reported.
Stopped in Nebraska
On June 3, 2022, a state patrolman stopped Smith for a traffic violation as he drove a rental car on Interstate 80 in York County, Nebraska.
The trooper became suspicious of Smith’s behavior and travel plans and called for backup. A York County Deputy showed up with a drug detection dog, who alerted officers to the smell of drugs in Smith’s vehicle, according to court records.
When officers searched the car, they found roughly two pounds of methamphetamine packaged in two separate one-pound bags in the trunk, the DOJ reported.
The trooper estimated the street value of the methamphetamine to be around $8,730.
In the center console, officers found a methamphetamine pipe and a pill bottle with Smith’s name on the label. Inside the bottle was about four grams of methamphetamine. In the trunk, officers said they also found a suitcase with clothes and documents addressed to Smith.
The methamphetamine was sent to the Nebraska State Patrol Crime Lab for testing.
A forensic scientist confirmed the presence of methamphetamine in both one-pound packages from the trunk as well as the pill bottle found in the center console, according to court documents.
Purity testing on one of the one-pound packages showed a methamphetamine concentration of 100% and resulted in at least 444.24 grams of actual methamphetamine.
The total weight of all methamphetamine ins the car was roughly 886.5 grams, authorities reported.
At the time of his arrest, Smith was serving a term of supervised release as a result of a conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine conviction out of Wisconsin from 2002.
The recent case was investigated by the Nebraska State Patrol, the York County Sheriff’s Office, and the Trident Drug Task Force.