Billings meth trafficker sentenced to four years in prison

BILLINGS—A woman who admitted selling a pound of methamphetamine for $4,500 as part of series of sales was sentenced on Wednesday to four years in prison and five years of supervised release, U.S. Attorney Kurt Alme said.

Ashley Dawn Chesmore, 30, of Billings, pleaded guilty in February to conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute meth and to possession with intent to distribute meth.

U.S. District Judge Susan P. Watters presided.

An investigation beginning in July 2018 by the Eastern Montana High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area Task Force and Drug Enforcement Administration found that Chesmore was distributing drugs, court documents said. A confidential informant and an undercover agent made a total of seven buys from Chesmore, with the last sale involving a pound of meth Chesmore sold for $4,500. A pound of meth is the equivalent of about 3,624 doses.

Investigators learned Chesmore was receiving meth in the mail from a co-conspirator and that one of the parcels came from San Ysidro, CA. All of the meth tested by the DEA was substantially pure.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Colin Rubich prosecuted the case, which was investigated by the Drug Enforcement Administration, FBI, Eastern Montana High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area Task Force and the Billings Police Department.

The case is part of Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN), which is the centerpiece of the Department of Justice’s violent crime reduction efforts.  PSN is an evidence-based program proven to be effective at reducing violent crime. Through PSN, a broad spectrum of stakeholders work together to identify the most pressing violent crime problems in the community and develop comprehensive solutions to address them. As part of this strategy, PSN focuses enforcement efforts on the most violent offenders and partners with locally based prevention and reentry programs for lasting reductions in crime