August 10 – GRAND FORKS – A Minneapolis man was convicted on August 10 of running an illegal drug operation out of the Grand Forks County Jail.
Timothy Edward Eason, 57, was sentenced to 204 months in prison for conspiracy to distribute controlled substances and conspiracy for money laundering. He will then be released under supervision for five years.
“Distributing dangerous drugs like fentanyl and meth endangers lives in our communities,” said US Attorney Mac Schneider. “Arranging shipments of these drugs from a county jail, as evidenced by today’s verdict, is a surefire way to get an even longer stay in a federal prison. This result is a real credit to the teamwork of our local , state and federal partners.”
Eason was arrested in 2021 on state drug charges and is being held at the Grand Forks County Jail, according to a press release from the North Dakota District of the U.S. Attorney’s Office. An investigation revealed that Eason used prison communications facilities to arrange shipments of methamphetamine and fentanyl from Arizona to Fargo, Moorhead, and other locations. This took place from October 2021 to February 2022.
Eason arranged, among other things, medicine payments via applications such as Cash App and Chime. Eason and Tiffany Marie Johnson were indicted by a grand jury in North Dakota last February. An alternate indictment was filed the following month, with additional defendants — Alfonso Demond Patrick and Ashtyn Lenea Gladue, the release said.
The source of supply was identified and prosecuted in Arizona. The others involved were sentenced to the following:
* Patrick, 47, of Phoenix, Arizona, was sentenced to 96 months in prison and three years of supervised release
* Johnson, 43, of Moorhead, Minnesota, was sentenced to 54 months in prison and three years of supervised release
* Gladue, 26, of Rolla, North Dakota, was sentenced to 42 months in prison and three years of supervised release
