By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
A man federal authorities are calling an “enforcer” in a drug ring accused of distributing highly pure methamphetamine in Cowlitz and Lewis counties was sentenced today to 10 years in prison.
Michael J. Waddington, 24, of Silver Lake, was arrested in June. His co-defendants in the case include Toledo residents Erica Deann Lewis and Anthony Wayne Reisbeck, along with Randy Scott Chalupa of Longview.
The Cowlitz-Wahkiakum Narcotics Task Force and the Drug Enforcement Administration began investigating members of the group in 2009. Information revealed the four were selling pound quantities of meth in and around Kelso, according to the U.S. Attorneys Office.
“Waddington admitted one of his roles in the drug organization was to collect drug debts,” the office stated in a news release today.
In asking for a significant prison term, Assistant U.S. Attorney Jeffrey Backhus noted for the court Waddington illegally possessed multiple firearms, including rifles, pistols and a sawed-off shotgun, according to the news release. He also has previous convictions for assault and then threatening a witness in the assault case, according to the news release.
Waddington pleaded guilty in October and was sentenced today in U.S. District Court in Tacoma for conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine, and being armed with a firearm in connection with a drug crime. Judge Robert J. Bryan imposed the sentence.
The other defendants are set to be sentenced early in 2011.
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Read the June 9, 2010 news story “News Brief: Alleged meth ring defendants handed over to feds” here
Tags: By Sharyn L. Decker, news reporter