ST. LOUIS – A U.S. District Judge sentenced a St. Louis man to prison on Tuesday after attempting to buy 40 pounds of methamphetamine at a Pacific, Missouri gas station.
According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office of the Eastern District of Missouri, Richard Treis, 51, of St. Louis and another man, Dennis Dewrock, 55, had planned to purchase the meth on July 29, 2020. But the men were apprehended by undercover agents with Homeland Security Investigations in a sting operation.
Reportedly, an inmate at the Great Plans Correctional Institution in Hinton, Oklahoma, named Tarik “Morocco” Mazhar, 43, wanted to purchase a large quantity of meth and arranged a plan with Treis and Dewrock over a cell phone he smuggled into prison.
But Homeland Security in El Paso became aware of their plan, and an undercover agent got involved. The agent began communicating with Mazhar over the phone to arrange a deal.
Treis called the undercover agent, confirming the purchase would happen in Missouri, and sent photos of the cash to the agent.
When Treis and Dewrock showed up, they were both arrested after they swapped the cash for the meth.
Treis was sentenced to nine years after he pleaded guilty to conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute 50 grams or more of methamphetamine. As part of his plea deal, he agreed to forfeit $128,000 in custody of Homeland Security Investigations.
Mazhar pleaded guilty in December 2021 to the same conspiracy charge and is serving a 13-year prison sentence. Dewrock pleaded guilty to the conspiracy charge and was sentenced to five years in prison.