Five Co-Defendants Sentenced Earlier

COEUR D’ALENE—Christopher McFarland, 49, of Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, was sentenced yesterday to 48 months in prison for conspiracy to distribute cocaine and conspiracy to launder money, U.S. Attorney Wendy J. Olson announced. U.S. District Judge Edward J. Lodge also ordered McFarland to serve five years of supervised release following his prison term. McFarland also forfeited his ownership interest in Chillers, a bar located on Sherman Avenue in Coeur d’Alene. He pleaded guilty to the charge on October 25, 2010.

According to court documents, McFarland and his co-defendants distributed between five and 15 kilograms of cocaine in northern Idaho between 2000 and 2010.

Also sentenced yesterday was co-defendant Lecia Donita O’Neill, 46, of Coeur d’Alene. She was ordered to serve 12 months plus one day in prison, to be followed by 10 months home confinement and eight years of supervised release. Co-defendants James Roy O’Neill, Steven Joseph McCabe, Debra Lynne Margraff, Gary Arden Votava, and Manuel Rivera have already been sentenced to federal prison with terms ranging from 180 months to five months.

“Those who bring cocaine or other illegal drugs into our communities will be brought to justice,” said Olson. “Yesterday’s sentencing marks the end of a successful investigation. It is a victory for our communities. I commend the cooperative law enforcement work that ended this long-lasting drug trafficking operation.”

The case was investigated by Idaho State Police, the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the Coeur d’Alene Police Department, the North Idaho Violent Crimes Task Force, and the Tri-Cities (Washington) Metro Drug Taskforce.

The investigation was the result of a joint investigation of the Organized Crime and Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF). The OCDETF program is a federal multi-agency, multi-jurisdictional task force that supplies supplemental federal funding to federal and state agencies involved in the identification, investigation, and prosecution of major drug trafficking organizations.