Drug Criminals Sentenced

A 45-year-old man whom officials say was shipping marijuana to the Escanaba area was sentenced to 87-months in prison yesterday. The case dates back to 2009, when the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and the Upper Peninsula Substance Enforcement Team began investigating. In 2010, they arrested a number of Escanaba residents who had been receiving the illegal pot – through the mail – and were distributing it locally. Four pleaded guilty, and were sent to prison. The supplier… Pedro Andres Kobasic… fled from Phoenix into Mexico… where he hid out for several years. Kobasic returned to the United States last summer, and pleaded guilty in November.

An Ishpeming woman who has three children is heading to prison for more than a dozen years. 32-year-old Rachel Lynn Hansen was recently convicted of possession of cocaine with intent to distribute. Hansen already had three felony drug convictions on her record when she was arrested in January of 2014. At the time, she admitted to agents that she’d been transporting heroin, crack and powdered cocaine into the U.P. since 2007. She was sentenced as a “career offender.”

A 23-year-old Milwaukee man will serve nine months in jail for distributing cocaine and morphine in Iron County. Dijon Lovonte Carter was sentenced in Iron County Circuit Court yesterday morning. He was credited for 144 days served. Carter was one of four men arrested on November 6th by the Upper Peninsula Substance Enforcement Team. At the time of his arrest, he was being held by police in Wisconsin on weapons charges.