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