Victor Lopez

Victor E. Lopez faced serious legal trouble in Montana when he was caught with more than 80 grams of methamphetamine in Carbon County in early 2018. But Lopez became a target of federal prosecutors after he was caught with nearly 300 more grams of meth in Powell just months later.

Last week, a federal judge ordered Lopez to serve a seven-year prison sentence for a felony count of possessing meth with intent to deliver.

The prosecution described Lopez as a “habitual methamphetamine dealer,” saying the 63-year-old Powell resident had sold the drug over the span of more than two decades in Wyoming and Montana.

“At some point, Lopez needs to understand that this sort of criminal behavior will never be tolerated,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Bryan Dake of Billings wrote in a sentencing memo.

In a letter to U.S. District Court Judge Susan Watters, Lopez said he took “full responsibility” for his actions and the mistakes he made.

“In order for me to accept responsibility, first I must accept that I’m the cause and not the victim of what happens to me and that I have to accept things for what they are cause I can’t change people, places or things, cause I’m not god,” Lopez wrote. “The one thing I can change is me.”

Lopez, his family members and the prosecutor each noted his battles with substance addictions and underlying mental health problems. Lopez’s oldest daughter wrote a letter to the court in which she described her father as a selfless, loving man with a selfish addiction that has damaged his life and led to a constant criminal history. Prosecutors said his record includes nine convictions for driving while under the influence of alcohol or controlled substances since 1990 and a 1999 incident in which he was caught with 5.5 ounces (roughly 150 grams) of meth in Powell.

When Carbon County Sheriff’s Deputy Chad Glick — a former Powell police officer — pulled Lopez over for speeding and weaving across his lane on Montana Highway 310 in January 2018, Glick had already heard that Lopez was again suspected of being involved in the drug trade.

Lopez didn’t appear to have any alcohol in his system, Glick later said, but the suspect appeared to be impaired by some kind of drug. Glick noticed numerous air fresheners in the air vents and a wad containing a few thousand dollars of cash on the front passenger seat, while a drug dog alerted to the scent of narcotics.

That was enough evidence for the deputy to secure a search warrant and he wound up finding 81 grams of meth, 1.6 grams of heroin and plastic baggies with meth residue inside a safe in Lopez’s trunk.

Carbon County authorities later released Lopez from jail, but they sought to arrest him again in June 2018. Then-Powell Police Sgt. Chad Miner learned of the warrant and pulled Lopez over on June 9.

Though he tested negative for alcohol, Lopez failed sobriety tests and was placed under arrest, Miner wrote in an affidavit.

The officer found $1,300 in Lopez’s wallet, which he claimed came from mowing lawns and watering for a family member. However, Miner’s drug detection K-9, Niko, alerted to the smell of narcotics on a safe found in the trunk. When Miner opened it up, he found more than 10 ounces (294 grams) of meth, two digital scales, a cellphone and $2,490 in cash inside.

Months later, in October 2018, federal authorities in Montana picked up the two cases and a grand jury indicted Lopez on counts of conspiracy to possess meth with intent to distribute and possession of meth with intent to distribute.

The case in Montana’s U.S. District Court wound up moving slowly because Lopez had to first deal with state charges and then because of several challenges he mounted to the federal case against him.

Lopez initially attempted to have the evidence against him suppressed and the case dismissed, arguing that the officers in Carbon County and Powell had violated his civil rights. However, Judge Watters and a magistrate rejected those arguments, saying police had enough evidence to stop Lopez and search his vehicle on both 2018 traffic stops.

Not long after that decision, in early 2020, his private defense attorney withdrew from the case and Lopez cycled through multiple attorneys. He grew unhappy with two different court-appointed attorneys, forcing them to withdraw from the case, and he attempted to dismiss the third lawyer he was provided before backing off.

That lawyer, Daniel Ball, eventually helped negotiate a plea deal, which resulted in one of the two charges being dismissed.

At last week’s sentencing hearing, Assistant U.S. Attorney Dake argued for a 158-month prison sentence, citing the danger Lopez can pose to the community.

The prosecutor acknowledged that Lopez has underlying mental health issues and “serious substance issues” that he’s attempted to address.

“However, Lopez also knows how to profit off of other individuals’ addictions,” Dake wrote in his sentencing memo. “He has sold methamphetamine for over 20 years and countless numbers of people have fed their own addictions because of Lopez.”

The prosecutor said the large amount of meth Lopez possessed was “alarming, considering how many people may be impacted.” Dake said that imprisonment would not only remove Lopez from society, but “provide him an opportunity to receive the help he needs to hopefully address his behavior in the future.”

Three of Lopez’s family members wrote letters of support on his behalf in which they argued that past sentences of incarceration haven’t helped.

A sister of Lopez’s said he’d been verbally and physically abused by his stepfather and had mental health problems.

His oldest daughter said allowing her father to rot in jail wouldn’t help him or the family and asked the judge to take Lopez’s addictions into account.

“I believe that he has dealt with pain that many of us cannot imagine and I also believe that the system has failed him in many ways,” she said. “With this being said, he has made every single decision on his own to get here, regardless of the heartbreak he has caused, and regardless of the people who have given so much to help him along the way.”

Another daughter called her father a good man who needs help.

“I do not believe the justice system has ever fully given [him] a hand to do so,” she wrote. “He is fully capable of doing better.”

Although Judge Watters ordered Lopez to serve seven years in prison, he should be out of custody much sooner than that.

At the time of sentencing, Lopez had already served more than two years in jail on the charges and Watters directed the Bureau of Prisons to place Lopez in a residential re-entry center up to a year before his release. All told, it means Lopez likely has less than four years of prison time remaining.

While his case was pending in Billings, Lopez was held at the Big Horn County Detention Center in Basin, but he’ll now be sent to a federal facility. Judge Watters recommended he be transferred to FPC Yankton, a minimum security prison camp in Yankton, South Dakota.

While in prison, Lopez said he plans to learn a trade, attend Alcoholics Anonymous/Narcotics Anonymous meetings and learn all he can about his addiction to better understand its effects on him and his family. His ultimate goal, he said in his letter, is to reunite with his children and “be the best that I can for them.”