SIOUX CITY – A man who conspired to distribute methamphetamine while possessing guns was sentenced August 30, 2019, to 30 years in federal prison.
On March 21, 2019, Brandon Lee Boone, 46, from Des Moines, Iowa, pled guilty to conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine, possession of a firearm in furtherance of a drug trafficking crime and possession of a stolen firearm. Boone was previously convicted of the manufacture/delivery/possession with intent to deliver methamphetamine in 2004 and possession with intent to deliver methamphetamine in 2008, both in the Iowa District Court. Boone was also previously convicted of possession of a firearm and ammunition by a felon in the United States District Court in 2009 and felony drug trafficking of methamphetamine with a firearm in Worthington, Minnesota in 2018.
At the plea hearing, Boone admitted his involvement in a conspiracy that distributed at least 15 kilograms of mixed methamphetamine from January 2018 through February 2018. On February 6, 2018, in Fort Dodge, Iowa, during a routine traffic stop of a vehicle in which Boone was a passenger, law enforcement seized over 800 grams of actual (pure) methamphetamine and three guns, including a loaded .44 caliber handgun on his person and a stolen AR-15 rifle with an extra capacity 60 round drum magazine. Boone admitted he possessed the methamphetamine with intent to distribute it and possession of guns (as a convicted felon) during the time and in furtherance of the conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine. At the time of the stop, Boone was heard to say “If I could get to my guns, I would blow their heads off.”
Boone was sentenced in Sioux City by United States District Court Chief Judge Leonard T. Strand. Boone was sentenced to 360 months’ imprisonment and must serve a 10 year term of supervised release following imprisonment. Boone remains in U.S. Marshals custody until he can be transported to a federal prison.
The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Shawn S. Wehde and was investigated by the Fort Dodge Police Department, Iowa Department of Narcotics Enforcement, Webster County Sheriff’s Office, Humboldt County Sheriff’s Office, and the Iowa Division of Criminalistics Investigation.
