A 31-year-old Ontario, Oregon man has been sentenced to 60 months in federal prison for distributing methamphetamine, capping a case that began with undercover drug buys and ended with federal agents pulling machine guns out of his home. Cody Bernal Carroll will also serve four years of supervised release once his prison term is complete.
According to the ATF Seattle field division, which covers Alaska, Hawaii, Washington, Idaho, Oregon and the U.S. Pacific territories, Carroll's sentencing was handed down by federal authorities in Portland. Per the U.S. Department of Justice, investigators first began building a case against Carroll in January 2023, documenting that he sold roughly half a pound of methamphetamine on Feb. 9, 2023, followed by about 50 grams on Feb. 23, 2023.
Machine Guns Turn Up in Residential Search
When investigators executed a federal search warrant at Carroll's residence in Ontario, a small border community in Malheur County, they recovered multiple firearms, including machine guns, the Justice Department's account notes. The discovery escalated what began as a narcotics investigation into a case with serious weapons implications as well.
A federal grand jury in Medford indicted Carroll on Oct. 5, 2023, charging him with distribution of methamphetamine and being a felon in possession of a firearm. He ultimately entered a guilty plea on March 10, 2025, to the methamphetamine distribution count, a legal trajectory the department's announcement lays out in detail. The case was investigated jointly by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, with assistance from the Treasure Valley Metro Violent Crime Task Force, the Ontario Police Department and the Oregon State Police.
Why the Sentence Lands at Five Years
Carroll's 60-month term tracks the federal statutory floor. Under 21 U.S.C. § 841, distributing 50 grams or more of a methamphetamine mixture, or 5 grams of pure methamphetamine, triggers a five-year mandatory minimum prison sentence, according to the Cornell Law School Legal Information Institute. Federal drug convictions carry no parole option, meaning that floor functions as a hard limit rather than a starting point for negotiation.
The Treasure Valley Metro Violent Crime Task Force that assisted in Carroll's case is an FBI-administered, multi-agency initiative backed by the Oregon-Idaho High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area program, built specifically to combat gang violence and cross-border narcotics networks in eastern Oregon and southwestern Idaho, per Justice Department background material. The border region between Malheur County and Idaho has become a persistent corridor for regional drug transit, which helps explain why so many agencies were pulled into a single case.
Part of a Wider Federal Crackdown
Carroll's case is not an isolated one for the Ontario area. Hoodline previously reported that federal courts handed down 37-year sentences in June to four members of a separate drug trafficking ring operating between Ontario and southwestern Idaho, following the seizure of more than 17 pounds of methamphetamine. The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration frames that case as part of a broader pattern of federal agencies targeting out-of-state drug pipelines supplying rural eastern Oregon.
The scale of that enforcement effort shows up in the numbers. During Fiscal Year 2025, federal courts in the District of Oregon sentenced 501 individuals across all crime types, and drug offenses accounted for 242 of those cases — nearly half the district's docket, according to the United States Sentencing Commission.
State Law Shifted, Federal Penalties Did Not
Oregon's approach to drug policy has changed dramatically in recent years. House Bill 4002 took effect in September 2024, recriminalizing personal drug possession and rolling back key elements of Measure 110. But commercial drug trafficking and distribution have remained Class A state felonies throughout, according to the Spodek Law Group, meaning Carroll's federal exposure was never affected by the state-level possession debate. Whatever changes Oregon lawmakers make to possession statutes, distribution cases like Carroll's continue to run through the same unyielding federal mandatory minimum framework.
