Federal and state law enforcement agencies announced the complete dismantlement of an interstate drug trafficking ring that pumped pounds of methamphetamine and fentanyl from Colorado into Wyoming, securing roughly 100 years of combined prison time for seven top-tier federal defendants, [oilcity.news] reported. “There is no parole in federal prison,” United States Attorney for the District of Wyoming Darin Smith stated during an Oct. 2 joint press conference in Cheyenne. “They won’t be paroled.”
Wyoming State and Federal Sentences Handed Down in Cheyenne
The multi-county investigation spanned Natrona, Carbon, Campbell, Albany, and Laramie counties, resulting in more than 30 state arrests alongside the federal prosecutions. The central Wyoming distribution ring operated under Rawlins resident Denny Jason Shrove, 48, who received an 18-year federal prison sentence for serving as a major distributor definitively linked to at least 23 pounds of methamphetamine. Colorado resident Nicole Rae Phipps, 42, received an 11-year sentence—specifically 133 months followed by five years of supervised release from U.S. District Judge Scott W. Skavdahl on Sept. 16, 2026—for supplying meth and fentanyl that investigators estimate brought between 22 and 44 pounds of drugs into Wyoming.
Additional federal sentences included Casper residents Bryan James Hackleman, Alysha Ann Dahl, and Gregory Keith McCoy. McCoy, 56, received an 11-year federal sentence, while Dahl, 33, received 12 and a half years. Hackleman, 44, was identified as a primary distributor and sentenced to over 12 years following an investigation by the Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation and the Casper Police Department into activity near a west-side Casper neighborhood during the summer of 2025.
Multi-Agency Task Force Tracks Smuggling Runs to Colorado
Investigators from the Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation, the Drug Enforcement Administration, and Homeland Security Investigations tracked Phipps and Shrove beginning in August 2025. Wiretaps and surveillance uncovered weekly supply trips to Colorado, with intercepted communications revealing at least five smuggling runs in October 2025 alone. The collaborative effort united Wyoming police and sheriff’s departments, the Wyoming Highway Patrol, federal partners, and out-of-state agencies.
“This was a team effort combining the resources of our Wyoming police departments, our sheriff’s departments, our highway patrol, our federal partners and our out-of-state law enforcement colleagues,” Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation Commander Ryan Cox said at the Cheyenne press conference. Carbon County Sheriff Alex Bakken emphasized the impact on smaller rural communities like Carbon County and Rawlins, noting that the operation significantly stems the local flow of narcotics.
Federal Prosecution Under Operation Take Back America
The federal case, prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Z. Seth Griswold under docket number 26-CR-00048-SWS, operated under the Department of Justice initiative Operation Take Back America. That nationwide effort coordinates Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces and Project Safe Neighborhoods to target transnational criminal organizations. U.S. Attorney Darin Smith warned other traffickers that law enforcement agencies will continue using every available resource to lock up drug distributors.
“When people think of a federal case, we want them to literally almost throw up thinking that they might be in one,” Smith said.
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