WI Woman Gets 18 Months in Fentanyl Ring

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REEDSBURG, WI – Chrystal Mueller, 41, will spend the next 18 months in federal prison after admitting she helped flood Wisconsin with fentanyl. Chief U.S. District Judge James Peterson handed down the sentence yesterday, rejecting Mueller’s plea for probation.

Mueller was a key link in a network that brought fentanyl pills from California, mailed directly to her and other conspirators in Wisconsin, between January and April 2022. She then pushed the drugs onto the streets, getting a cut for her trouble. The scheme lasted nearly two years, and Mueller dragged her then-boyfriend into the operation, according to the Judge.

This wasn’t a small operation. Investigators tracked 19 parcels of fentanyl shipped from California, intercepted by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service in March and April 2022. The drugs were addressed to Mueller, as well as Kenneth Phillips – the ringleader – and Brandon Stevens, a mail carrier who abused his position to divert the packages.

Phillips, 40, of Wisconsin Dells, already got six years in prison. Stevens, 40, received a year and a day. Another conspirator, Ames Basham, is set to be sentenced in April 2026. Mueller’s 18-month sentence is followed by three years of supervised release.