Wanblee Man Pleads Guilty to Controlled Substance Charge

United States Attorney Brendan V. Johnson announced that Reed Thomas Brown, Jr. a/k/a Baby Reed, age 37, of Wanblee, South Dakota, appeared before U.S. Magistrate Judge Veronica L. Duffy on March 13, 2013, and pled guilty to count one of the indictment that charged him with conspiracy to distribute a controlled substance. The penalty upon conviction is a minimum of five up to 40 years’ imprisonment and/or a $5,000,000 fine.

Between October 2008 and July 2012, in South Dakota, Brown conspired to distribute 100 kilograms or more of marijuana. The investigation was conducted as part of Operation Eagle Eye, a controlled substances investigation conducted by the Northern Plains Safe Trails Task Force Drug Enforcement Task Force, whose member agencies include the Federal Bureaus of Investigation, the Bureau of Indian Affairs Office of Justice Services, the South Dakota Division of Criminal Investigation, the South Dakota Highway Patrol, the Pierre Police Department, and the Oglala Sioux Tribe-Department of Public Safety. The case is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Ted L. McBride.

The defendant was remanded to the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service pending acceptance of this plea and sentencing.