Sioux City, Iowa — An Okoboji man has pled guilty to federal crimes and could face up to life in prison and up to a $10-million fine.
According to the US Attorney’s Office, 26-year-old Cole Rongved of Okoboji was convicted of one count of conspiring to distribute methamphetamine and one count of illegally possessing ammunition.
The US Attorney’s Office says Rongved conspired to distribute methamphetamine and illegally possessed ammunition. They say he made his guilty plea on Thursday of this week in federal court in Sioux City.
The US Attorney’s Office says that at the plea hearing Rongved admitted that he was involved in a conspiracy from May 2018 through January of this year that distributed more than three pounds of methamphetamine in the Dickinson County area. Rongved admitted he and two associates acquired over two pounds of meth from a source in Council Bluffs for later distribution in the Lakes area says the US Attorney’s Office. During search warrants executed at Rongved’s residence, law enforcement located and seized over a thousand rounds of ammunition, over five pounds of marijuana, 37 doses of LSD, four grams of methamphetamine, over two pounds of psilocybin mushrooms, nearly $38,000 in cash, and other items of drug trafficking and drug paraphernalia.
No sentencing date has yet been set. Rongved faces a mandatory minimum sentence of ten years in prison and a possible maximum sentence of life in prison, a $10 million fine and at least five years of supervised release following any imprisonment.
The US Attorney’s Office says the case was investigated by the Iowa Division of Narcotics Enforcement;; the Dickinson County Sheriff’s Office; the Palo Alto County Sheriff’s Office; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives; and the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation.
