HELENA — Under Montana state law property tax payments in the Treasure State are due twice a year in May and November. However, beginning in the 2025 property tax payment period Montanans can pay their property taxes in a series of seven monthly installments rather than paying the standard twice yearly lump-sum payments.

This new program was made possible through House Bill 830, an act providing an alternative payment schedule for property taxes.

This bill passed in 2023, and you can apply now to participate in the program on 2025 property tax payments.

American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) Montana state director Tim Summers says the association supported the legislation and program because it can help reduce financial stress on Montana seniors. “We supported this first and foremost because it makes aging easier, it makes it easier for older Montanans 50-plus to pay their property tax bill, if anything we can do to make the aging process easier, we’re all about that.”

Summers adds, “It is a very significant strain on seniors to be able to keep up with rising property values many seniors find themselves house rich and cash poor. The more property values increase, the harder it can be for them to keep up with those property taxes and so therefore programs like this are essential to be able to keep them in their homes, aging where they want to.”

The program also aims to make it easier for other populations to balance their property tax payments with addition other cost of living expenses.

“The new, optional payment plan will make it easier for anyone on a fixed income – including older Montanans — to better meet their property tax obligations, while managing their household budget at the same time,” said Summers in a news release on the AARP States Montana webpage.

Twenty-seven people were convicted as part of a broad meth and fentanyl-trafficking ring based on the Crow Indian Reservation but tied to three other reservations in Montana, as well as Washington state and Mexico, Montana’s U.S. Attorney announced Thursday.

U.S. Attorney for the District of Montana Jesse Laslovich said the operation to target the drug-trafficking ring Spear Siding was one of the largest drug trafficking investigations in Montana in recent years. It started in June 2022 and ended in a raid in April 2023. Laslovich announced the convictions at a news conference in Billings on Thursday.

According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office and federal court documents, two homes on the Crow Reservation, one of them called Spear Siding, where some of the top dealers lived, were the center of the trafficking ring and dealt meth on the Crow and Northern Cheyenne reservations in southeastern Montana.

But the ring also expanded to Rocky Boy’s and the Fort Belknap reservations and into Billings and Havre. The conspirators would trade drugs for pounds of meth and guns at the Spear Siding property, and sent proceeds from the drug sales to Washington, California, and Mexico, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.

“The Spear Siding trafficking organization moved onto the Crow and Northern Cheyenne Reservations to exploit and prey on persons addicted to meth and fentanyl, all due to greed. While meth and fentanyl distribution impacts all of Montana, these drugs continue to disproportionately devastate Indian Country,” Laslovich said in a statement. “As this Spear Siding investigation shows, Montana’s Indian reservations are not a safe haven for out-of-state traffickers who think they can move in, set up shop, and enlist local residents to peddle drugs.”

Twenty-seven people pleaded guilty to drug trafficking, firearms crimes, or both, his office said. Two alleged co-conspirators are still on the run, including one of the top-level people behind the operation.

Wendell Lefthand and his sister Frederica Lefthand, who both lived at the Spear Siding home, each had a hand in running the operation. Wendell Lefthand initially was running the operation along with one of the now-fugitives, whom he met through a meth distributor in Washington. That unnamed co-conspirator moved to the Spear Siding home, after which “business started booming,” according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Wendell Lefthand was arrested in June 2022 on a different charge, and his sister took over the Montana operation, dealing “pounds and pounds and pounds” of meth, according to court documents.

She and the co-conspirator allegedly built an operation that sent hundreds of pounds of meth to the Crow and Northern Cheyenne reservations to be distributed to lower-level dealers.

The Drug Enforcement Administration, Federal Bureau of Investigation, and Bureau of Indian Affairs conducted and assisted with the investigation.

“Cartel members preyed on an already vulnerable population, further fueling the drug crisis on Montana’s Indian Reservations, and employing members of the community to peddle poison to their own people,” Salt Lake City FBI Special Agent in Charge Shohini Sinha said in a statement. “Too many lives have been lost to illicit drugs. Too many families have suffered. The FBI and our partners will not stop pursuing criminals harming our communities.”

The 27 people convicted received the following sentences, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office:

• Wendell Lefthand, of Lodge Grass: 180 months in prison
• Frederica Lefthand, of Lodge Grass: 288 months in prison
• Roderick Plentyhawk, of Billings: 300 months in prison
• Carly Joy James, of Billings: 84 months in prison
• Jeffrey Prettypaint, of Crow Agency: 60 months in prison
• Darlon Richard Lefthand, of Billings: 84 months in prison
• Keilee Shambrae Diaz, of Hardin: 12 months, one day in prison
• Zachary Douglas Bacon, of Garryowen: time served
• Morgan Luke Hugs, of Hardin: 48 months in prison
• Anthony Springfield, of Hardin: time served
• Haley James, of Billings: time served
• John Littlehead, of Billings: 48 months in prison
• Marianna Wallace, of Omak, Washington: 36 months in prison
• Yvon Lopez Flores, of Omak, Washington: 48 months in prison
• Jacklyn Littlebird, of Lame Deer: time served
• Adrienne LaForge, of Lame Deer: 24 months in prison
• Geofredo James Littlebird, of Lame Deer: pending sentencing
• Nancy Hartsock, of Billings: 72 months in prison
• Joe Simpson, of Lame Deer: 240 months in prison
• Melanie Bloodman, of Billings: time served
• Renita Redfield, of Lodge Grass: 63 months in prison
• Daniel Jiminez-Chavez, of Omak, Washington: 84 months in prison
• Sayra Longfox, of Lodge Grass: pending sentencing
• Emma King, of Lame Deer: pending sentencing
• Antonio Infante, of Brewster, Washington: 128 months in prison
• Elisha Felicia, of Wyola: 60 months in prison
• Nicole Schwalbach, of Billings: 120 months in prison

A man who carried out an armed robbery at a Montana gas station while wearing no pants has now been jailed.

The bizarre robbery unfolded on October 16 2023 when Samuel James Collins barged into a Town Pump gas station in Townsend, near Great Falls, wearing a hooded blanket coat, but no pants or shoes, and fired a round from a pistol, prosecutors said.

Collins, 34, then demanded money from two employees who handed over roughly $330 in cash, before he fled the scene in a pickup truck.

The entire incident was captured on surveillance footage, showing the armed robber’s unusual choice of attire.

Just 20 minutes after fleeing the scene, the 34-year-old was tracked down by Meagher County Sheriff’s Office deputies and taken into custody.

Officers found a loaded 9mm pistol, $329 in cash and a shell casing inside his truck.

A bullet and shell casing recovered from the gas station were found to match the pistol, prosecutors said.

Collins pleaded guilty in July to possessing and discharging a firearm during a crime of violence, according to the US Attorney’s Office for the District of Montana.

On Wednesday, he was sentenced to 10 years in prison followed by three years of supervised release.