Navajo Woman Sentenced to 10 Years in Federal Prison for Selling Methamphetamine
| U.S. Attorney’s Office July 06, 2011 |
PHOENIX—U.S. District Judge Neil V. Wake sentenced Lisa Marie Yazzie, 33, to 120 months in federal prison on Tuesday for selling methamphetamine in Flagstaff, Arizona. On February 22, 2011, Yazzie, a member of the Navajo Nation who lives in Flagstaff, pleaded guilty to possession with the intent to distribute five grams or more of actual methamphetamine in or near a school. Between September and November 2009, Yazzie sold methamphetamine to undercover law enforcement officers. Two of those methamphetamine sales were within 500 feet of an elementary school in Flagstaff. During this year long investigation, police arrested 22 people on federal charges. So far, 19 defendants have been sentenced, two defendants are awaiting sentencing, and a trial is pending in the remaining case.
The investigation in this case was conducted by the Navajo Nation Division of Public Safety Drug & Gang Unit, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs, and the Flagstaff Police Department. The prosecution is being handled by Christina J. Reid-Moore, Assistant U.S. Attorney, District of Arizona, Phoenix.
CASE NUMBER: CR-10-8058-PCT-NVW
RELEASE NUMBER: 2011-142(Yazzie)