Boise septuagenarian pleads guilty to distributing methamphetamine

BOISE, Idaho – Clinton DeWitt Bays, Jr., 77, of Boise, pleaded guilty to distributing methamphetamine, Eben Roberts, acting special agent in charge of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Seattle field office and U.S. Attorney Bart M. Davis announced today. Pursuant to a written plea agreement filed with the Court, Bays pleaded guilty to distributing more than fifty grams of actual methamphetamine.

According to court records, while out on bond on state court charges for drug trafficking and possession with intent to deliver methamphetamine, Bays sold four ounces of methamphetamine to an undercover officer.

Bays faces a statutory mandatory minimum sentence of at least ten years and a maximum sentence of life imprisonment, a $10,000,000 fine, and at least five years of supervised release.

Sentencing for Bays is set for February 19, 2020, before Chief U.S. District Judge David C. Nye at the federal courthouse in Boise. Bays remains in-custody pending sentencing.

The case was a result of a joint investigation by the Boise and Meridian Police Departments and the Organized Crime and Drug Enforcement Task Force (OCDETF). The OCDETF includes the cooperative law enforcement efforts of HSI, the Federal Bureau of Investigation; Drug Enforcement Administration; Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives; Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation; and U.S. Marshals Service. The OCDETF program is a federal multiagency, 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.

HSI participates in organized crime drug enforcement task forces, which were established in 1982 to conduct comprehensive, multi-level attacks on major drug trafficking and money laundering organizations. The program identifies, disrupts and dismantles the most serious drug trafficking and money laundering organizations and those primarily responsible for the nation's drug supply.