Larry Owens III, 26, of Lincoln Park, Mich., is scheduled to be sentenced Jan. 4, 2022, in U.S. District Court in Bismarck for intent to distribute a large amount of fentanyl last year in the Minot area.

He was originally charged in district court in Mountrail County in June 2020 with intent to deliver 190 fentanyl tablets, and was then charged in September 2020 in district court in Ward County with intent to deliver more than 5,000 fentanyl pills, or about 618.34 grams, in the Minot area. Minot police said at the time that it was the largest fentanyl bust ever made in the area and the fentanyl had a street value of about $350,000. According to federal court records, law enforcement also found multiple cell phones and more than $3,000 in cash in the Minot apartment where Owens was located.

The prosecution was subsequently taken over in federal court.

Owens signed a guilty plea to one of the three federal charges in July and a change of plea hearing was held Sept. 8 in U.S. District Court. Under the terms of the agreement, the prosecution will recommend a sentence at the low end, of nine years and six months in prison, followed by four years of supervised probation, at sentencing. The maximum sentence for the charge would be 40 years in prison, with a minimum mandatory five years in prison. The judge is not bound by the agreement.

Owens is currently in custody at the Heart of America Correctional Center in Rugby.