International Fentanyl Empire Operating in Montana Gets Shut Down

Montana is a little bit safer now thanks to the hard work of a Joint Homeland Security Task Force that shut down an operation that sounds like something out of a movie.

I'm talking international drug trade and smuggling.

Justice Department Shuts Down Drug Operation Based in the Netherlands

While it sounds the bit straight out of to a Hollywood script, it's very much real.

The Justice Department alleges that the man behind this drug operation, Gerad Punch, a 41-year-old U.S. citizen, was living in the Netherlands running a drug operation with his buddy Bernard Cowley Glass Jr., a 39-year-old from Phoenix.

The guy in Phoenix, Glass, would help Punch move fentanyl from Mexico to multiple states including Texas, Washington, and yes, Montana.

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Officials say Punch earned himself a 20-year prison sentence back in February while Glass learned he would be sentenced to 15 years in prison last month.

But it was only recently that they sentenced the last of the thirteen defendants, Adam Sarvis of Butte, yesterday (8/20) to two years in prison followed by five years of supervised release.

How an Operation in the Netherlands Smuggled Drugs into Montana

This is the part of the story that sounds like it was scripted for Netflix and don't be surprised if this story inspires any shows or movies about this.

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Here is how these dealers began an empire to bring fentanyl into Montana and other states.