California Man Sentenced to More Than 17 Years for Conspiracy to Distribute More Than 500 Grams of Methamphetamine

TEXARKANA, AR—Conner Eldridge, United States Attorney for the Western District of Arkansas, announced that Craig William Polite, age 46, of San Francisco, California, was sentenced today on one count of conspiracy to distribute more than 500 grams of methamphetamine. Polite was sentenced to 210 months’ imprisonment with five years of supervised release. The sentencing took place before the Honorable Harry F. Barnes in the United States District Court for the Western District of Arkansas.

U.S. Attorney Eldridge commented, “Repeat offenders such as Polite demonstrate a lack of respect for both the criminal justice system and society in general. This case is particularly noteworthy because of the large quantity of methamphetamine being shipped to Texarkana from California. With this sentence, we are sending a resounding message that we will do everything in our power to investigate and prosecute large-scale drug trafficking and the violence and other crime that often comes with it.”

According to court records, from 2011 until his arrest in March 2013 Polite conspired with individuals to ship over fifteen kilograms of methamphetamine from California to Arkansas. During the course of the investigation, on March 5, 2013, Polite shipped a package through the United States Postal Service containing approximately two pounds of methamphetamine from San Francisco, California, to a confidential informant in Texarkana, Arkansas, which was seized by investigators. The defendant was on federal supervised release in the state of California after having served approximately 15 years in federal prison on drug trafficking charges when he committed this crime.

This case was investigated by the FBI, Bi-State Narcotics Task Force and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service. Assistant United States Attorney Matthew Quinn prosecuted the case for the United States.