CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. -- A Poplar Bluff woman was sentenced to three years in federal prison Tuesday afternoon for conspiring to distribute methamphetamine after authorities intercepted a shipment being sent to her.
Jo Anna Woley was sentenced to 36 months on the felony of conspiracy to distribute methamphetamine by U.S. District Judge Stephen Limbaugh Jr., according to Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Tim Willis.
Upon Woley's release from prison, Willis said, the judge ordered she be placed on a mandatory three years of supervised release.
"She was also ordered to forfeit any interest that she may have had in $5,000 in drug proceeds, which was seized during the investigation," Willis said.
With her earlier plea, Woley admitted on Feb. 28, 2016, U.S. postal inspectors intercepted a suspicious parcel in St. Louis, which was addressed to a "Jo Woley" at a rural Butler County address.
A search warrant reportedly was obtained after a drug-detecting police dog alerted to an odor of narcotics coming from the package, which was found to contain 112 grams of a mixture or substance containing methamphetamine.
On March 2, 2016, investigators reportedly "attempted a controlled delivery of the package to Woley."
When contacted by officers and told of her rights, Woley agreed to speak with investigators.
Woley, according to her signed plea agreement, initially denied knowing anything about the package; however, "later admitted that it had been sent to her by Gregory Sanders, a methamphetamine supplier whom she had met several years" before.
The plea agreement says Woley admitted to having previously received a package containing about 4 ounces of methamphetamine from Sanders in the mail.
Woley reportedly had used some of the methamphetamine and sold the rest.
Woley, according to the plea agreement, reported she had received methamphetamine from Sanders on six previous occasions.
Sanders typically would call Woley and let her know "whom various amounts of methamphetamine were for, and Woley would be allowed to keep the rest as long as she paid for it," the plea agreement says.
Woley, the plea agreement further says, would "typically parcel out the methamphetamine to the people Sanders indicated, use some of it and then sell the rest.
"Woley would then send Sanders the money for the methamphetamine sold by herself and others through different means."
At the agents' request, Woley made a "consensually recorded phone call to Sanders, and the two discussed the package that had been intercepted," the plea agreement says. "Woley told Sanders that she was nervous about law enforcement watching and waiting for her to get the package.
"Sanders told her that if the package showed up that she should just 'throw it under a tree' and get it another time."
On July 5, Sanders was arrested in Poplar Bluff after allegedly distributing about a half ounce of meth.
After being told of his rights and confronted with allegations he was a meth distributor, Sanders admitted to being "probably good for a couple of pounds," the plea agreement says.
A state search was obtained for and executed on a Poplar Bluff hotel room where Sanders was staying. Officers reportedly recovered about $5,000 in suspected drug proceeds from the room.
Sanders, 54, of Phoenix, Ariz., pleaded guilty in February to the felony of conspiracy to distribute 500 grams or more of methamphetamine. He is to be sentence June 26.
At that time, Sanders faces a maximum penalty of not more than life imprisonment, followed by at least a five-year period of supervised release.