Billings Couple Sentenced in Meth Trafficking Case

More than six pounds of crystal-clear death were pulled off the streets of Billings before they could poison another addict, another family, another block. That haul—21,744 individual doses of pure methamphetamine—was the product of a trafficking run by Raymond Thomas Tetzlaff, 35, and Crystal Busby-Tetzlaff, 36, a married couple who treated Montana like their personal drug corridor.

The two pleaded guilty to possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine after a federal investigation unraveled their operation. On the day of reckoning, U.S. District Judge Susan Watters slammed Raymond Tetzlaff with 216 months in federal prison and Crystal Busby-Tetzlaff with 120 months. Both will serve five years of supervised release upon completion of their sentences.

From 2016 into early 2017, the Tetzlaffs weren’t just users—they were suppliers. They imported multi-pound quantities of meth into Billings, flooding neighborhoods with a drug that shreds lives and overwhelms emergency rooms. Their operation wasn’t fly-by-night: law enforcement executed search warrants at their home and a rented storage unit, uncovering not only the massive meth stash but scales, packaging materials, and other tools of the trade.

When agents moved in, Raymond Tetzlaff was found holding two loaded firearms inside the residence—equipment not for protection, but for enforcement in the brutal economy of drug sales. The presence of weapons elevated the case from simple distribution to a federal-level threat, triggering enhanced sentencing under gun-on-drug-trafficking statutes.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas Godfrey and built through collaboration between the Eastern Montana Drug Task Force, the Drug Enforcement Administration, and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives. It stands as one of the sharper blows in Montana under the reinvigorated Project Safe Neighborhoods initiative, the Department of Justice’s focused campaign against violent and drug-related crime.

Project Safe Neighborhoods isn’t symbolism—it’s strategy. With federal, state, local, and tribal agencies aligned, traffickers like the Tetzlaffs are no longer slipping through jurisdictional cracks. Today’s sentences send a message: bring poison into Montana, and the feds will bring the hammer.

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