Eleventh Defendant Pleads Guilty to being involved in Loren Toelle Drug Trafficking Organization

COEUR D'ALENE – William Jaquett Barker, 31, of Williston, North Dakota, pleaded guilty yesterday to conspiracy to distribute controlled substances, U.S. Attorney Wendy J. Olson announced. Barker was indicted by a federal grand Jury in Coeur d'Alene in April of 2016.

According to the plea agreement, Barker admitted that he and others joined and agreed with each other to distribute controlled substances in Idaho and elsewhere. Although the conspiracy lasted from at least 2009 until the arrests on February 4, 2016, Barker did not join the conspiracy until 2015. Barker maintained a residence in North Dakota where a member of the conspiracy came to sell heroin and oxycodone. Barker also admitted that he helped conceal, transport and sell controlled substances during his involvement.

The charge of conspiracy to distribute controlled substances is punishable by up to 20 years in prison, a maximum fine of $1,000,000, and up to a life time of supervised release.

Sentencing is set for June 20, 2017, before Chief U.S. District Judge B. Lynn Winmill at the federal courthouse in Coeur d'Alene.

The case was investigated as part as the Organized Crime and Drug Enforcement Task Force which included the CDA Police, Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Internal Revenue Service, Criminal Investigations (IRS-CI), Kootenai County Sheriff, North Idaho Violent Crimes Task Force (NIVCTF), and U.S. Immigration and Custom Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).

The OCDETF program is a federal multi agency, multi-jurisdictional task force that supplies supplemental federal funding to federal and state agencies involved in the identification, investigation, and prosecution of major drug trafficking organizations.