Man gets 25 years for Havre meth sales ring

A man was sentenced in federal District Court in Great Falls Thursday to 25 years in prison for running a methamphetamine sales ring in north-central Montana after an investigation that included work in Missoula.

Harry Truman Hicks, 36, aka Harrun Abu Latiff Munir, was sentenced to 300 months in prison followed by five years of supervised release and ordered to pay a $100 assessment by Judge Sam Haddon.

Hicks had previously pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine.

According to a release from the U. S. Attorney's Office, the Tri-Agency Safe Trails Task Force began an investigation in March 2009 into meth being transported to the Havre area from Washington. Hicks was identified as a suspect in the investigation.

In June 2009, an agent with the Missoula High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area Task Force arrested Hicks on an outstanding arrest warrant. The agent recovered 33 bindles of meth during the arrest, with a net weight of approximately 4.9 grams, and it was packaged for street sales.

In an interview a few days later, Hicks said he had obtained meth from Washington, including receiving one to one-and-a-half ounces of meth a week from one source.

He said he delivered the meth to Browning and Havre, including to at least two people in Havre.

One of the Havre residents, not named in the release, said he or she had distributed between one and two pounds of meth for Hicks, wiring money to a Washington resident for him.

Hicks told the interviewing agent that he used the money from the sales to support his children and their mothers, the release said.

A man was sentenced in federal District Court in Great Falls Thursday to 25 years in prison for running a methamphetamine sales ring in north-central Montana after an investigation that included work in Missoula.

Harry Truman Hicks, 36, aka Harrun Abu Latiff Munir, was sentenced to 300 months in prison followed by five years of supervised release and ordered to pay a $100 assessment by Judge Sam Haddon.

Hicks had previously pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine.

According to a release from the U. S. Attorney's Office, the Tri-Agency Safe Trails Task Force began an investigation in March 2009 into meth being transported to the Havre area from Washington. Hicks was identified as a suspect in the investigation.

In June 2009, an agent with the Missoula High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area Task Force arrested Hicks on an outstanding arrest warrant. The agent recovered 33 bindles of meth during the arrest, with a net weight of approximately 4.9 grams, and it was packaged for street sales.

In an interview a few days later, Hicks said he had obtained meth from Washington, including receiving one to one-and-a-half ounces of meth a week from one source.

He said he delivered the meth to Browning and Havre, including to at least two people in Havre.

One of the Havre residents, not named in the release, said he or she had distributed between one and two pounds of meth for Hicks, wiring money to a Washington resident for him.

Hicks told the interviewing agent that he used the money from the sales to support his children and their mothers, the release said.