Two Bedford County men pleaded guilty today in a Lynchburg courtroom to participating in a methamphetamine ring operating throughout Bedford and Campbell counties. The U.S. Attorney’s office says 35-year-old Ivan Chavez of Forest 27-year-old Brent Hutchins of Goode entered pleas to federal drug and firearms charges. Federal prosecutors say can trace more than one-and-a-half kilos of meth to the operation.
(Continue reading for the full U.S. Attorney’s news release.)
Two defendants in a broader methamphetamine and cocaine conspiracy pled guilty to conspiracy and firearms charges in the United States District Court for the Western District of Virginia in Lynchburg, Acting United States Attorney Rick A. Mountcastle announced. Ivan Rodriguez Chavez, 35, of Forest, Va., pled guilty today to one count of conspiring to possess with the intent to distribute and to distribute specified quantities of methamphetamine and cocaine and one count of possessing a firearm in furtherance of these drug trafficking crimes. Brent Michael Hutchins, 27, of Goode, Va., also pled guilty today to one count of conspiring to possess with the intent to distribute and to distribute methamphetamine and cocaine. In addition to this charge, Hutchins entered a plea of guilty to one count of possessing a firearm while being an unlawful user of or addicted to a controlled substance.
According to evidence presented at today’s guilty plea hearing by Special Assistant United States Attorney Kari Munro, between April 2015 and April 2016, Chavez acted as the main source of supply for his co-defendants and others, including Hutchins, in a methamphetamine ring operating throughout Bedford and Campbell Counties. The Government’s evidence indicates that Chavez was traveling to North Carolina on a frequent basis to obtaining large quantities of both methamphetamine and cocaine. These drugs would then be sold to others in the conspiracy for his co-defendants’ personal use as well as redistribution to a number of end users. In all, six illegally possessed firearms, 100 grams of cocaine, and more than 1.5 kilograms of methamphetamine can be traced to the members of the conspiracy. The investigation of the case was conducted by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, the Bedford County Sheriff’s Office and the Roanoke City Police Department. Assistant United States Attorney Donald R. Wolthuis and Special Assistant United States Attorney Kari Munro prosecuted the case for the United States.