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SALT LAKE CITY — A Utah woman who admitted to helping distribute over 99 pounds of methamphetamine in Utah, Idaho and elsewhere, between 2014 and 2016, will spend 20 years in federal prison, authorities said.
Tiffany Scott Spevak, 39, was sentenced Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Salt Lake City, according to a news release from the office of U.S. Attorney for the District of Utah John W. Huber.
Spevak was originally charged with conspiracy to distribute meth, money laundering and several other offenses in U.S. District Court in February 2018, according to federal court records.
She pleaded guilty in May to conspiracy to distribute meth and money laundering, according to her plea agreement. The other counts in her case were dismissed.
Reached by phone on Thursday, Spevak’s attorney Kent Morgan declined to make any comments on the sentencing because he was still involved with the case proceedings.
Federal agents learned that a man arrested in Washington in January 2016 said he got meth from Spevak, according to court documents. Agents subsequently interviewed Spevak at her Salt Lake City home on Jan. 11, 2016, court documents state.
They found $37,000 in cash, as well as mail envelopes and a roll of shrink wrap, which a narcotics K9 alerted, according to the news release.
She initially told investigators that they were items used by her significant other, Hugo Tapia-Mendoza, according to the release. But she later said she contacted people who worked for Tapia-Mendoza, and those people connected her with other people who sold meth, according to the release.
Spevak admitted to conspiring to distribute meth in Utah, Idaho and elsewhere and getting the drugs from Arizona and California, according to her plea agreement. She also admitted to conducting financial transactions related to the drug sales, her plea agreement states.
Investigators estimate that a total of between 250 and 500 pounds of meth were distributed in the case, the news release states.
Cases are pending for four co-defendants in Spevak’s case, according to the news release. Those four are Carlos Rafael Cota-Escalante, 53, of Arizona; Stephen Scott Spevak, 62, of Idaho; Carlos Rafael Cota-Llanes, 31, of Arizona; and Shanna Walter, 42, of Utah, the release states.
Ryan Dalley, of Pocatello, Idaho, was sentenced to 17 years in prison in a related case in September, according to the release. He allegedly worked with Tiffany Spevak to obtain meth in Los Angeles and Phoenix to distribute it in Idaho and Montana, the release states.
