7 sent to Prison after Police Shut Down Michigan Crystal Meth Ring

Seven people will be spending a lengthy time in prison after police shut down a major crystal meth trafficking operation in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. 

The Gogebic-Iron Area Narcotics Team and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration partnered up for the two-year long investigation. 

The investigation led to seven federal convictions. 

By the fall of 2013, the GIANT team identified 39-year-old Richard Hill a.k.a “Rock Star Rick” as a significant supplier of meth.  

Hill is a 1994 graduate of Luther L. Wright High School in Ironwood who moved to Las Vegas and became a heavy meth user. 

Hill returned to Ironwood in 2012 and kept his connections in Las Vegas. Investigators say he would travel to Las Vegas and pick up drugs to sell in Ironwood. 

Police say he enlisted friends to receive and distribute the meth.  Hill would collect the packages, use some of the meth himself, and sell the rest in order to finance his next trip to Vegas. 

Investigators say Hill and his friends helped spread a meth epidemic across the Western UP.  

Undercover agents arranged several methamphetamine buys from Hill.  

A search warrant was executed at his home where authorities found 400 grams of meth and more than $20,000 in cash. 

Hill was convicted on drug trafficking charges and sentenced to 15 years behind bars. 

“Trips to Las Vegas and a catchy nickname sound glamorous, but Richard Hill’s next destination is far from glamorous and he will now have to answer to the number the Bureau of Prisons assigns him,” said U.S. Attorney Patrick A. Miles, Jr. 

Six others convicted will spend between two and 12 years in prison. 

Those convicted range from age 32 to 46.