MARQUETTE — Elizabeth Jean Decota, also known as “Biz,” was sentenced to 51 months in prison in an Upper Peninsula-based drug conspiracy by Chief U.S. District Judge Hala Y. Jarbou, U.S. Attorney Mark Totten of the Western District of Michigan said Wednesday.

Decota was the 10th and final defendant to plead guilty and be sentenced in United States v. Smith, et al. Jarbou imposed the sentence after commenting that the conspiracy had a “significant impact on the community” bringing in a “significant quantity of methamphetamine to an area” already so heavily impacted by drug abuse.

“Illegal drugs are a danger to our loved ones and have no place in our communities,” Totten said in a statement. “The United States Attorney’s Office is working closely with our federal, state, local and tribal law enforcement partners to disrupt drug trafficking rings in Indian country and across the state to help rid our streets of meth, heroin, fentanyl and other potentially lethal poisons.”

Between March and December 2021, the conspirators brought significant quantities of methamphetamine, heroin and fentanyl from Detroit and distributed those drugs throughout the western half of the U.P. The conspirators based their operations at the Hannahville Indian Community and the Keweenaw Bay Indian Community, distributing significant quantities of methamphetamine to those communities.

“Drug-related activity in the L’Anse Indian and Hannahville reservations contribute to violent crime and imposes serious health and economic difficulties to tribal communities,” said Jerin Falcon, deputy associate director of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Office of Justice Services, Division of Drug Enforcement, in a statement. “These sentences help send a message that drug use and trafficking has no place on the reservations.”

Drug Enforcement Administration Detroit Field Division Special Agent in Charge Orville O. Greene said in a statement, “The cooperation between local, state, tribal and federal law enforcement has once again proven effective. This indictment should put drug traffickers on notice that we will use whatever resources necessary to remove them, and the poisons they peddle, from our communities.”

The other defendants and their respective prison sentences are as follows:

Tyler Allen Smith, also known as “Ty Ty” and “Ty,” 158 months; Jason Earl Arnold, 120 months; Jill Elizabeth Roberts, 136 months; John Paul Decota, Jr., also known as “Bub,” 64 months; Clifford Keith Durant, Jr., 90 months; Shanna Marie Decota, 52 months; Peggy Sue Swartz, 46 months; Allyson Marie Denomie, 41 months; and Alexander Brandon Sagataw, 46 months.

After serving their terms of imprisonment, the defendants will be on supervised release for several years.

Investigating the case were the Bureau of Indian Affairs; the Drug Enforcement Administration; Upper Peninsula Substance Enforcement Team; Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives; FBI – Safe Trails Task Force; Michigan State Police; Delta County Sheriff’s Office; Hannahville Tribal Police Department; Keweenaw Bay Indian Community Tribal Police; and Troy Police Department.