A female drug dealer was sentenced to five years and three months in federal prison Friday for selling methamphetamine on the Gila River Indian Community, which abuts the southern border of Ahwatukee Foothills.
Renee Johanna Cannon, 32, from Bapchule, Ariz., was arrested following an undercover operation that targeted people with a history of selling methamphetamine and crack out of their homes on the reservation, according to Manny Tarango, a spokesman with the U.S. Attorney's Office, Arizona district.
"Indian Country will not be a safe haven for drug dealers," said U.S. Attorney Dennis K. Burke.
During the two-year operation, led by the Gila River Police Special Enforcement Unit and supported by the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs drug unit, detectives observed Cannon working with a co-defendant to sell 18.5 grams of methamphetamine for $1,200 at a local laundromat.
Officers discovered that Cannon sold methamphetamine from approximately February to October in 2009 on the Gila River Indian reservation. She was held at a halfway house pending the resolution of the case, but fled in June 2010. She was found and re-arrested in November 2010.
