Vernon County Man Sentenced to 11 ½ Years for Trafficking Methamphetamine and Fentanyl

MADISON, WIS. – Timothy M. O’Shea, United States Attorney for the Western District of Wisconsin, announced that Stanley J. Holte, 34, Coon Valley, Wisconsin, was sentenced today by U.S. District Judge William M. Conley to 11 ½ years in federal prison for conspiring to distribute and possess with intent to distribute methamphetamine and fentanyl. The prison term will be followed by 5 years of supervised release. Holte pled guilty to this charge on January 16, 2024. 

On June 12, 2023, law enforcement officers executed a search warrant at the residence of Holte and his co-defendant Julia Lloyd in Coon Valley. Holte was pulled over after being observed leaving the residence. Officers searched Holte and his car and found a large quantity of cash, methamphetamine, and fentanyl. Officers arrested Lloyd at the residence, where they found additional quantities of methamphetamine and fentanyl. In total, officers seized just under five pounds of methamphetamine, over an ounce of fentanyl, and almost $50,000 in cash. Lloyd and Holte were later interviewed and admitted to trafficking significant quantities of methamphetamine and fentanyl.

At sentencing, Judge Conley emphasized that a lengthy prison sentence was necessary for Holte because of the significant quantities of dangerous drugs that he was distributing in the community and his long history of selling drugs. At the time of this incident, Holte was on extended supervision with the State of Wisconsin for a prior methamphetamine trafficking offense. His probation in that case was revoked because of his new criminal conduct, and he was sentenced to approximately 16 months in state prison. Judge Conley ordered that the federal sentence run concurrently with the remainder of Holte’s state revocation sentence.

On March 1, 2024, Judge Conley sentenced Julia Lloyd to 78 months in federal prison for conspiring with Holte to traffic methamphetamine and fentanyl.

The charges against Lloyd and Holte were the result of an investigation conducted by the Campbell, La Crosse, and Onalaska Police Departments, La Crosse County and Vernon County Sheriff’s Offices, and the United States Drug Enforcement Administration, with the assistance of the Vernon County District Attorney’s Office. Assistant U.S. Attorney Steven P. Anderson prosecuted this case.