Richard L. Treis, 46, of St. Louis has been charged for allegedly trying to buy 40 pounds of methamphetamine from an undercover federal agent in Pacific just days after getting out of federal prison, the U.S. Attorney’s Office reported July 30.
Treis was charged by complaint in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Missouri with of 500 grams or more of meth possession with intent to distribute, according to U.S. District Court papers.
On July 15, Treis reportedly called an undercover agent with the Department of Homeland Security and arranged to purchase 40 pounds of meth for $120,000. Then, Treis reportedly met the undercover agent on July 29 in Pacific and showed the agent a large amount of cash in a black bag before going behind a building to exchange the cash for the meth, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said in a written statement.
After Treis allegedly took a bag that had 7.1 kilograms of meth in it from the agent, investigators arrested Treis and another person who had driven Treis to the Pacific location. The other person has not been charged, the U.S. Attorney’s Office reported.
Treis previously had been sentenced to five years and three months in prison stemming from a 2005 meth case, and he served just more than eight years in federal prison for a 2012 meth conspiracy case, court records show.
The Department of Homeland Security and the Drug Enforcement Administration are investigating the current case. Assistant U.S. attorney Derek Wiseman is handling the case.