MADISON, WIS. – Chadwick M. Elgersma, United States Attorney for the Western District of Wisconsin, announced that Tyler Briggs, 33, Mosinee, Wisconsin, was sentenced today by U.S. District Judge William M. Conley to 7 ½ years in federal prison for possessing methamphetamine intended for distribution. The prison term will be followed by 5 years of supervised release. Briggs pled guilty to this charge on April 23, 2026. On January 29, 2026, an undercover officer with the Wausau Police Department arranged to buy a small amount of methamphetamine from Briggs outside of a Wausau bar. When Briggs arrived, police arrested him and found over 1.5 pounds of methamphetamine in his backpack. During an interview, Briggs admitted to police that he was a drug dealer. At Briggs’s sentencing, Judge Conley observed that over the past several years, Briggs had spent more time in jail than out in the community. Judge Conley found that the lengthy sentence was necessary because the large amount of methamphetamine in this case put Briggs in an entirely different category of drug distributor. The charge against Briggs was the result of an investigation conducted by the FBI’s Central Wisconsin Narcotics Task Force comprised of agents from the FBI, Wisconsin State Patrol, Lincoln County Sheriff’s Office, Marathon County Sheriff’s Office, Portage County Sheriff’s Office, Mountain Bay Police Department, Wausau Police Department and Wisconsin National Guard Counter Drug Program. Assistant U.S. Attorney William M. Levins prosecuted the case.Federal prosecutions by the U.S. Department of Justice involving drugs and guns are part of the U.S. Department of Justice’s Operation Take Back America. Operation Take Back America is a nationwide initiative that marshals the full resources of the Department to repel the invasion of illegal immigration, achieve the total elimination of cartels and transnational criminal organizations, and protect our communities from the perpetrators of violent crime. Operation Take Back America streamlines efforts and resources from the Department’s Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETFs) and Project Safe Neighborhood (PSN).
Source: U.S. Department of Justice