Andrew Kenneth Heron Sentenced in U.S. District Court
| U.S. Attorney’s Office January 06, 2011 |
The United States Attorney's Office announced that during a federal court session in Missoula, on January 6, 2011, before U.S. District Judge Donald W. Molloy, ANDREW KENNETH HERON, a 22-year-old resident of San Francisco, California, appeared for sentencing. HERON was sentenced to a term of:
Prison: 70 months
Special Assessment: $100
Supervised Release: five years
HERON was sentenced in connection with his guilty plea to conspiracy to distribute cocaine/ecstasy.
In an offer of proof filed by Assistant U.S. Attorney Tara J. Elliott, the government stated it would have proved at trial the following:
R.L. and J.D. would have testified that they met HERON in early 2005 and that they then began purchasing ecstasy and cocaine from HERON, who mailed the drugs from California, via the United States Postal Service or Fedex, to them in Montana. The first of these packages contained 50 to 100 tablets of ecstasy and about one ounce of cocaine. R.L. stated that they received similar packages four to nine times over the next three months.
Early in the summer of 2006, R.L. and J.D. were sent two ounces each of cocaine in a package from HERON—with a similar package sent approximately one month later. After another month, they received a package containing eight ounces of cocaine.
During the fall of 2006, R.L. and J.D. each received shipments of 1/4 pound of cocaine each on two or three occasions.
In February 2008, J.D. again began receiving ecstasy from HERON, and between February and April 2008, he received a total of 500 to 700 ecstasy tablets and two to three ounces of cocaine. J.D. also stated that a package mailed to R.L. and J.D. in September 2008 contained eight ounces of cocaine and was split evenly between the two of them.
Because there is no parole in the federal system, the "truth in sentencing" guidelines mandate that HERON will likely serve all of the time imposed by the court. In the federal system, HERON does have the opportunity to earn a sentence reduction for "good behavior." However, this reduction will not exceed 15 percent of the overall sentence.
The investigation was a cooperative effort between the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Missouri River Drug Task Force.