Marion man sentenced to over 20 years for distributing meth

CEDAR RAPIDS — A Marion man who sold over 30 pounds of methamphetamine was sentenced last month to more than 20 years in federal prison.

Robert Lee Michael Bates, 31, previously pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court to one count of conspiracy to distribute meth.

Evidence from previous hearings in a meth trafficking ring that involved Bates and 11 others showed David Belton, also known as “Blood,” and others coordinated shipments of between 30 to 60 pounds of ice meth between Los Angeles and Cedar Rapids from 2017 and March 2022.

Belton paid others to transport the ice meth, typically in a vehicle that contained a specially-made hidden compartment. Once the drugs arrived in Cedar Rapids, Belton or his associates would distribute the meth to others, who sold the drugs to customers.

According to evidence, investigators used wiretaps on phones used by the trafficking ring and intercepted calls that included Bates. He was ordering pounds of ice meth and 100 ecstasy pills from the others.

U.S. District Judge C.J. Williams sentenced Bates to 248 months in prison and ordered him to serve five years of supervised release following his prison term. Bates is the last of 12 co-defendants in the investigation to be sentenced:

The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Dan Chatham and investigated as part of the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force program of the U.S. Department of Justice, through a cooperative effort of the Drug Enforcement Administration Task Force in Cedar Rapids and the FBI. The DEA Task Force in Cedar Rapids consists of the DEA; Linn County Sheriff's Office; Cedar Rapids and Marion police departments; and the Iowa Division of Narcotics Enforcement.

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