Two more enter guilty pleas in Operation Double Trouble sting operation
Two more individuals arrested during Operation Double Trouble have entered into plea agreements and are set to be sentenced.
Matthew E. Cronin, 27, of Huntingburg, pleaded guilty to dealing in methamphetamine, a level 5 felony. He will be sentenced to four years at the Indiana Department of Correction.
Jeffrey L. Friede, 57, of Linton, pleaded guilty to dealing in methamphetamine, a Level 4 felony, and will be sentenced to 10 years at the Indiana Department of Correction.
Both men are set for sentencing on April 6 at 1 p.m.
On June 4, 2015, local law enforcement officers began serving arrest warrants for drug dealing offenses stemming from an investigation known as Operation Double Trouble.
In two rounds of arrests, 18 individuals were served with taken into custody for drug dealing charges in Dubois and Spencer counties.
Ten of the cases filed in Dubois County have been resolved and eight cases remain pending at this time.
The sentences handed down thus far total 50 years, with 40 years of jail time.
As was expected by the Dubois County Prosecutor’s Office, the sentences imposed as part of Operation Double Trouble are significantly less than those imposed as part of Operation Big Brother, the prosecuting attorney’s office stated in a press release.
These more lenient sentences are a direct effect of the leniency of the current Indiana Criminal Code.
The Dubois County Prosecutor’s Office remains hopeful that the Indiana legislature will reinstitute harsher penalties for drug dealing offenses.
