Iowa Woman Sentenced to 14 Years in Prison for Conspiracy to Distribute Methamphetamine

United States Attorney Lesley A. Woods announced that Vallene Marie Bell, 35, of Sioux City, Iowa, was sentenced on July 9, 2026, in federal court in Omaha, Nebraska, for conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine. Chief United States District Robert F. Rossiter, Jr. sentenced Bell to 168 months' imprisonment. There is no parole in the federal system. After Bell is released from prison, she will begin a 5-year term of supervised release.

This case involves a Mexico source of supply of methamphetamine who supplies the Omaha and Council Bluffs, Iowa, areas with methamphetamine via a local network of drug couriers. Customers order the drugs from the source who then sends a courier to meet them and complete the transaction. The defendants named in the indictment are local couriers, organizers, and customers operating in Nebraska and Iowa who distribute and buy the source's drugs.

On September 9, 2024, law enforcement, while conducting surveillance, observed the defendant and co-defendant Michelle Renee Horton meet with co-defendant Emerson Reyes-Andrade at an Omaha location and conduct what officers believed was a drug transaction. Following the transaction, Iowa State Troopers conducted a traffic stop on the vehicle the defendant and Horton were riding in after they traveled into Iowa. A canine unit arrived during the stop and Horton consented to the canine's deployment which resulted in a positive indication to the odor of narcotics coming from within the vehicle. A search of the vehicle resulted in the seizure of one pound of methamphetamine.

Horton was sentenced to 84 months' imprisonment on May 19, 2026. Reyes-Andrade was sentenced to 120 months' imprisonment on July 2, 2026.

This prosecution is part of the Homeland Security Task Force (HSTF) initiative established by Executive Order 14159, Protecting the American People Against Invasion. The HSTF is a whole-of-government partnership dedicated to eliminating criminal cartels, foreign gangs, transnational criminal organizations, and human smuggling and trafficking rings operating in the United States and abroad. Through historic interagency collaboration, the HSTF directs the full might of United States law enforcement towards identifying, investigating, and prosecuting the full spectrum of crimes committed by these organizations, which have long fueled violence and instability within our borders. In performing this work, the HSTF places special emphasis on investigating and prosecuting those engaged in child trafficking or other crimes involving children. The HSTF further utilizes all available tools to prosecute and remove the most violent criminal aliens from the United States. HSTF Omaha comprises agents and officers from HSI, FBI, DEA, ATF, U.S. Marshals Service, USPIS, the IRS-Criminal Investigation Division, and assistance of the Douglas County Sheriff's Office with the prosecution being led by the United States Attorney's Office for the District of Nebraska.