(KIWA Staff Photo)
Sioux City, Iowa — A Le Mars man has received a federal prison sentence after a guilty plea.
The US Attorney’s Office tells us 49-year-old Chad Hoppe of Le Mars was sentenced last week to more than two years in prison after a March 9, 2026, guilty plea to false statements relating to health care matters and aggravated identity theft.
They tell us that evidence in the case revealed that between May 2024 and March 2025, Hoppe diverted fentanyl and Dilaudid allegedly for patient use. Instead, we are told he used the controlled substances personally and failed to complete or falsified the related health care paperwork. During this time, Hoppe was an Iowa-licensed registered nurse. They say he put in false orders for narcotics claiming to have permission from a licensed physician, when he did not. Hoppe diverted what the US Attorney’s Office calls “staggering” amounts of liquid fentanyl and Dilaudid. In March 2025, for example, while working as a supervisor, Hoppe pulled out over 9,000 micrograms of fentanyl. The next closest staff member at the same facility pulled out a total of 700 micrograms of fentanyl that month.
Hoppe was sentenced in Sioux City by United States District Court Judge Leonard T. Strand to 30 months in prison and was fined $1,000. He must also serve a one-year term of supervised release after the prison term. There is no parole in the federal system. Hoppe was released on the bond previously set and is to surrender to the Bureau of Prisons on a date yet to be set.
