Staff Story Published: Oct 3, 2010 at 1:51 PM PDT

Story Updated: Oct 3, 2010 at 1:51 PM PDT

http://www.klewtv.com/news/local/104169434.html

BOSIE - Lawrence Edward Weitzman, 66, of Placerville, California, will serve 27 months in federal prison for his role in laundering $2,960,000 in drug proceeds for four-time convicted drug trafficker Gregory Sperow, 58, of Los Angeles.

Weitzman, a practicing attorney in Placerville, was sentenced August 31 by Chief U.S. District Court Judge B. Lynn Winmill. The court imposed a fine of $25,000 in addition to asset forfeitures totaling $175,000.

According to the U.S. Attorney's Office in Boise, Weitzman was the fifteenth defendant sentenced in a multi-year prosecution of the Kent

Jones organization, which had been identified as a Regional Priority Target by the Federal Organized Crime and Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF) in Idaho.

The investigation resulted in a series of indictments against defendants who operated throughout the United States, importing illegal drugs from Mexico to Southern California. The drugs were then typically transported to the Portland, Oregon, area before being shipped to Idaho, Washington, and other places in the Midwest and East Coast, including Colorado, Ohio, North Dakota, Nebraska, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Vermont, New Jersey, and New York.

Federal prosecutors said in addition to the importation and transportation of marijuana, the group was heavily involved in growing marijuana in Oregon in the 1990's, both indoors and on public lands.

The original indictment was returned by a federal grand jury in Boise, Idaho, in June 2006. Weitzman was added as a defendant in a superseding indictment filed in January 2007.

On September 22, 2008, Weitzman pled guilty to conspiracy to launder money and structure transactions, with an agreement to forfeit $175,000 in assets.

The OCDETF investigation was handled by the District of Idaho because it stemmed from the case of a major drug trafficker, Leland Lang of Stites, Idaho, who was successfully prosecuted in Idaho in 2002.

The Jones organization supplied Lang with large quantities of drugs which were distributed in Idaho and various Midwest and Eastern states. Over one million dollars in currency was seized from Lang's mountaintop residence in Stites in 2002.

Following the indictment of Lang and other co-conspirators in Kentucky, the investigative trail led to the Jones organization, which had its origins in a group of high school friends from Days Creek, Oregon. The group's early activities centered around growing and

selling marijuana, but later expanded to include smuggling large quantities of illegal drugs from Mexico and Colombia.

The investigation revealed that Sperow was one of Jones' sources of supply for marijuana over a period of several decades. Weitzman’s association with the group was largely through co-defendants Greg Sperow and Dale Barker of Evergreen, Colorado. Sperow began his criminal career in the mid-1970's when he was caught smuggling 1,330 pounds of marijuana into the United States from Mexico for which he was convicted and sentenced to federal prison. Shortly after his release, Sperow became involved in smuggling marijuana into the United States from South America and Mexico.

In March 1981, Sperow was again sentenced to prison. In the mid-1990's, Sperow was involved in a large-scale methamphetamine manufacturing operation in the Southern California area. During the same time period, Sperow was also identified as the supplier of multi-hundred pound shipments of marijuana sent from Los Angeles to Portland, Oregon, Cleveland, Ohio and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Shortly after Sperow attempted to retrieve 237 pounds of marijuana

from the Portland airport in January 1996, Sperow became a fugitive on federal marijuana trafficking charges out of the District of Oregon, and methamphetamine manufacturing charges out of the Southern District of California.

Between January 1996 and May 2004, Sperow lived under several assumed names while he continued his drug trafficking career. Through the help of Weitzman, he also continued to launder millions of dollars in drug proceeds.

In May 2004, Sperow was apprehended near Orinda, California. He was subsequently tried and convicted in Oregon and sentenced to five years in prison. In June 2006, Sperow was indicted in Idaho for his role in a 30-year drug conspiracy with Kent Jones and many others.

Sperow pled guilty to conspiracies to distribute controlled substances and launder drug proceeds in September 2008. On June 17, 2009, Sperow was sentenced to 181 months in prison. Sperow also forfeited cash and property interests located in California, Colorado, Oregon and Hawaii valued at $8 million.

In sentencing Sperow, Judge Winmill described the case as a "massive

criminal enterprise" and noted that Sperow had a "complete lack of respect for the law."

Weitzman’s sentencing came at the end of approximately five days of testimony. In its ruling, the District Court found that the “evidence was overwhelming” that Weitzman either knew, or became willfully blind regarding the illegal source of Sperow’s funds by 1996, that Weitzman continued to launder Sperow’s drug funds while Sperow was a fugitive for eight years, and that Weitzman laundered Sperow’s proceeds even after Sperow was sent to federal prison for the fourth time in 2005.

In addition to Weitzman, the following persons have been sentenced in the case:

Kent Jones, 54, Vancouver, Washington. Sentenced May 2009. 144 months prison. 10 years supervised release. $10,000 fine. Forfeiture of $1.2 million. Money judgment of $5 million.

Mark Daniel Kitzman, 52, Lake Oswego, Oregon. Sentenced June 2009. 78 months prison. Five years supervised release. Forfeiture of $1.8 million.

Dennis Bruce Hammons, 61, Medford, Oregon. Sentenced July 2009. 105 months prison. Five years supervised release.

Mark M. Alders, 56, Lakeside, Oregon. Sentenced April 2008. 78 months prison. Three years supervised release. $2,000 fine.

Harold Carl Ballenger, 57, Bend, Oregon. Sentenced December 2008. 60 months prison. Five years supervised release. $1,800 fine.

Gerald Francis McDonald, 58, Costa Mesa, California. Sentenced July 2008. 42 months prison. Six years supervised release. $1,500 fine.

Jerod Lee Keyser, 34, Priest River, Idaho. Sentenced March 2009. 8 months prison. Five years supervised release. Forfeiture of $225,000.

John Phillip Keyser, 67, Priest Lake, Idaho. Sentenced June 2009. 33 months prison. Three years supervised release. Forfeiture of $875,000.

Texanna M. Keyser, 67, Priest Lake, Idaho. Sentenced June 2009. Three months prison. Three years supervised release. Forfeiture of $875,000.

Robert David Long, 55, Eugene, Oregon. Sentenced November 2008. 42 months prison. Four years supervised release. $2,500 fine. Forfeiture of $70,000.

Damon John Marsh, 39, Portland, Oregon. Sentenced April 2008. 28 months prison. Four years supervised release. $1,500 fine.

Mark William Pursley, 34, Vancouver, Washington. Sentenced April 2008. 27 months prison. Five years supervised release. $5,000 fine.

Dale Eugene Barker, 56, Evergreen, Colorado. Sentenced November 2008. 24 months prison. Three years supervised release. $5,000 fine.

Gregory Frank Sperow, 58, Los Angeles, California. Sentenced June 2009. 181 months prison. Forfeiture of $8 million.

Through previous indictments in Idaho, and the cooperation of local and federal authorities in other states, including the U.S. Attorney's Office in the District of Oregon, the Douglas County Oregon Prosecutor's Office, and the Oregon Department of Justice, the following additional defendants, who were linked to the Jones organization, have also been

successfully prosecuted in Idaho or elsewhere as a result of this investigation:

Alan Russell Williamson, 72, of Beaverton, Oregon. Nicholas Ray Albano, 32, of Portland, Oregon. Tami Ballenger, 49, of Bend, Oregon.

Leland Lang, 61, of Stites, Idaho. 9.5 years prison. Forfeiture of $1.1 million.

James Dale Rose, 55, of Winchester, Kentucky. Forfeiture of $200,000.

Hubert Ivy, Jr., 55, of Winchester, Kentucky.

Raymond L. Haddon, 62, of Clarkston, Washington. 16 months prison. Forfeiture of $11,000.

Two other defendants associated with Jones passed away before trial and/or sentencing. Agencies involved in the investigation and arrests include IRS Criminal Investigation Division, the Idaho State Police, the Drug Enforcement Administration, Douglas County Interagency Narcotics Team, Oregon Department of Justice, Oregon State Police, the U.S. Marshals Service, Westside Interagency Narcotics Team, the Bonner County Sheriff's Office, and the Pacific Northwest Fugitive Task Force.

“Weitzman’s sentencing marks the end of one of the most significant drug investigations and prosecutions in the history of Idaho’s U.S. Attorney’s Office,” said Idaho U.S. Attorney Wendy Olson. “Thanks to the tireless work of federal and state law enforcement agencies and

AUSAs Monte Stiles and Tony Hall, those responsible for decades of drug trafficking have been brought to justice. They have been imprisoned and stripped of their assets through forfeiture proceedings. These cases demonstrate our resolve and commitment to protect our communities.”