Man gets 21 years for meth crime

A 27-year-old Mexican citizen was sentenced Oct. 5 to 21 years and 10 months in prison during U.S. District Court proceedings in Missoula.

Ramon Gaspar-Ochoa had pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine.

According to a news release from the U.S. Department of Justice, Gaspar-Ochoa and two others were arrested Feb. 27 after agents seized roughly one pound of meth. Gaspar-Ochoa and the other two had transported about three pounds of meth from Arizona to a home in Kalispell where it was being stored.

A day prior to the arrests, a man told law enforcement officers he had found a large amount of meth in his bathroom and that it belonged, in part, to Gaspar-Ochoa.

On the day of the arrests, agents found a pound of meth under the stairs at the house.

Gaspar-Ochoa and another man that were arrested are Mexican citizens with no status in the United States. Gaspar-Ochoa had been previously deported twice.

In addition to his prison term, Gaspar-Ochoa was ordered to pay a special assessment of $200.

The investigation that led to the arrest of Gaspar-Ochoa was a joint effort between the Northwest Montana Drug Task Force, the Montana Division of Criminal Investigation and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.