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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 17, 2008

Whitesville Felon Pleads Guilty To Drug And Weapons Charges
- Street value of methamphetamine over $6,000

JAN 17 -- (Owensboro, KY) - Jeffrey Lee Ambs, age 45, of Whitesville, Kentucky, pled guilty to drug and gun charges, U.S. Attorney David L. Huber of the Western District of Kentucky, and Paul Vido, Special Agent in Charge of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), Louisville Field Division, jointly announced today.

Ambs admitted that on or about January 4, 2007, he possessed with intent to distribute fifty grams or more of methamphetamine, having a street value in excess of $6,000. Ambs also admitted that he, being a felon, having been convicted of first-degree possession of a controlled substance on April 4, 2005, in Warren Circuit Court, possessed a firearm--a Richardson 12-gauge shotgun, Model Trooper 158.

On January 4, 2007, the Owensboro Police Department received a tip from a cooperating individual that Ambs was trafficking large quantities of methamphetamine out of his residence in Whitesville, Kentucky. Based on this tip, officers received a state search warrant. When officers arrived to execute the search warrant, Ambs ran behind the residence, where officers found him lying on his stomach, on top of a set of keys. Approximately ten feet away from him, officers found a bank bag . Using one of the keys, officers opened the bank bag and found a digital scale, corner cuts from baggies, and methamphetamine. Inside the residence, officers found a Richardson 12-gauge shotgun, Model Trooper 158 and one round of ammunition, a night vision camera, and handwritten drug ledgers. Ambs also had $3861 on his person.

The maximum potential penalties are life imprisonment, a $4,250,000 fine, and supervised release for a period of not less than five years; and the minimum potential penalties are ten years' imprisonment and supervised release for a period of five years.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Madison T. Sewell, and it was investigated by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Kentucky State Police, Daviess County Sheriff's Office, and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.

The plea was entered before Joseph H. McKinley, Jr., Judge, United States District Court, Owensboro, Kentucky.

This is a Project Backfire prosecution. Project Backfire is a partnership of state, local and federal law enforcement which targets violent offenders for prosecution to the fullest extent of state and federal law.

Ambs is scheduled to be sentenced before Judge McKinley on April 25, 2008, at 9:00 a.m., in Owensboro, Kentucky.

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