A man from Pottawattamie Couty was sentenced today (Thursday) to 10 years in prison on a methamphetamine charge. 50-year old John Theodore Beaman, Sr., of Council Bluffs, was sentenced in United States District Court in Council Bluffs on a charge of conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine. Senior United States District Court Judge Robert W. Pratt sentenced Beaman to 120 months in prison, to be followed by 10 years of supervised release. Beaman was also ordered to pay a $100.00 special assessment for the Crime Victim Fund.

Beaman remained in the custody by the United States Marshal’s Service pending designation of the Federal Bureau of Prisons facility at which he will serve his sentence. Beaman was sentenced based upon his plea of guilty, which was entered on February 8th, 2013. Beaman was sentenced for his role in a conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine in and around Council Bluffs, Iowa, from late 2009 to July of 2011. During the course of the conspiracy, approximately eleven pounds of methamphetamine were distributed.

As a part of the conspiracy, Beaman frequently distributed methamphetamine from his residence, which was only about 84 feet from the property of an elementary school. Previously sentenced in association with this investigation were: David Lynn Fisher, who was sentenced to 117 months imprisonment, plus 5 years of supervised release; Steven Lacey Etherington, who was sentenced to 150 months in prison, plus 5 years of supervised release; Nicholas Joseph Franks, who was sentenced to 133 months imprisonment, plus 5 years of supervised release for the drug trafficking conspiracy, and 120 months imprisonment, plus 3 years of supervised release for a firearms conviction, with the sentences to run concurrently; and Lisa Marie Barrett, who was sentenced to 60 months in prison, plus 5 years of supervised release.

The case was investigated by the SouthWest Iowa Narcotics Enforcement Task Force, and the case was prosecuted by the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Iowa.