I just read and re-read Noah’s next upcoming letters for the past few hours and even though I already knew all of what he talks about, going down memory lane is not fun sometimes.
The words he uses and the way he describes things, coming from his perspective, literally took my breath away and I had to put down the letter multiple times.
I’m so proud of you, Noah, for being able to share these descriptive details with our readers.
I know these aren’t the easiest to share from you and have our entire family be ok with this, but we can already see and feel the impact on the lives that these letters are changing.
Hundreds of messages…”We’re not as fortunate as you… they’re no longer here with me today.” Sisters, wives, brothers, daughters, sons, cousins… …you name it. Dead. Because of drugs. Jamie is now getting used to me crying on the daily.
THANK YOU, for all that have opened your heart to us, and know that we’re answering as best as we can and shooting them off to Noah as fast as I can (I get rejection letters regularly from prison… we’ll save that for another post, ugh.) BUT… keep them coming!! Noah calls me daily too and we get through them as fast as we can. We answer every single question. So know we are here for you.
This is all too common with so many people and something we need to talk more openly about.
And after reading these next few upcoming letters for you guys, from Noah, I’m honestly not sure how Noah is here with us today either.
A junior high school with over 300 students is now incorporating these letters of Noah’s into their curriculum too.
Stuff like this, real life, needs to be taught.
If you missed that last letters you can find them here:
To my Greyson, my Promise to you
A letter from a Prisoner
A letter to a Prisoner, My brother
Q & A at Prison with Noah
Thought Process from an Addict, The Why
Noah’s next letter…
Side Note, My Background
I want to give a little background on my criminal behavior because one of my goals with you guys is also to inform the general public about the criminal justice system.
First, I want to admit everything I was doing was illegal and I deserved to go to prison.
But…maybe not for the charge I was given.
I thought as long I didn’t get caught with drugs or in a controlled buy, I was fine.
I was wrong.
I guess I didn’t know how the Feds operated. I knew they were asking about me, but I wasn’t aware of how they build a case, mine included.
It’s called, Ghost Dope.
No drugs ever have to be seized for “Ghost Dope” to be hard evidence.
It’s as simple as following a lead that suspect one is buying drugs from “Noah,” then when questioned subject one admits to buying one kilogram of cocaine, they now have one kilogram of “Ghost Dope,” then get four or more and you now have a five-kilogram cocaine conspiracy.
The first time I decided to sell drugs was about a week after I got laid off from an automatic data processing corporate job. It was my first real job after college. They cut me a check for around $5,000 for severance, six weeks pay, and sick pay and I decided to take my drug connections from partying and make some money.
Before this, I would middleman drugs to use for free.
I was about to cross a line that would change my life forever.
I bought some ecstasy, went up to Grand Forks, and doubled my money. I was hooked.
Early on, it was about making some extra fun money, partying with a different crowd, and having the flexibility and freedom to do whatever.
Then I met Dacotah (my daughter’s mom), and I was in love. Bringing drugs up north was a reason to see her.
After a while though, I just got addicted to the lifestyle and then, in the end, I was just addicted to the drugs I was selling.
I couldn’t hold down a real job because I was unreliable. I had to pay other people to drive my drugs because many times I was too high to do it myself.
I got myself robbed twice at gunpoint, where both times I acted irrationally.
I literally could have gotten myself shot.
Those robberies also put me in a deep hole with bad people (because they took everything), which led me to lie to my family to borrow money so that I could sell more drugs to pay back debts and not get myself killed.
One thing I’ve always been good at is networking and that’s probably what got me in the most trouble with all this. When the Feds finally had enough Ghost Dope, they came and got my twenty other conspirators and me.
I couldn’t believe it when I looked at my charges…
Controlling Criminal Enterprise.
They had me as a “King Pin.”
I didn’t even know what that was, but it sounded serious, and I was looking at 20 years to life in prison.
I was running an organization like Al Capone or Whitey Bulger, who I think this type of indictment was originally intended for. But, I guess now they are busting college kids with these same charges too.
I co-operated to get ten years, which is only two years less than Whitey Bulger’s top enforcer, someone who admitted to over thirteen murders. I never even carried a gun.
My networking skills built me a giant network of college kids who were selling and using my drugs. I would come to town, front out my drugs, party all weekend, and pick up my money on the way out of town. I thought I was selling to college kids who wanted to have fun.
After my drug use got out of control, I started paying others to drive my drugs up, and the Feds looked at these individuals as my employees. In the end, it didn’t matter because my actions fit the criteria for the charge whether it was just or not.
At sentencing, the prosecutor said he had never seen an indictment with so many kids that all had college degrees.
The judge at my sentencing referred to the charges as ridiculous and said from the looks of my record; I simply got off track for a few years. He even stated if we didn’t have a binding plea, he could have gone lower.
The point of this is…
I am not looking for sympathy. I simply want to educate because someone you know might be in a similar situation. I had three opportunities.
I had a chance to call the prosecutor before my indictment, but I didn’t, because I didn’t want to be a rat. Looking back now, I realized I was putting my drug dealers ahead of my daughter, who at the time was about to turn one.
Instead, I chose to wait, and it cost me more valuable time that I’m now missing sitting in prison. I now realize this time was probably for the best as it has given me much needed time for personal growth as I will outline in my series later.
From the inside,
-Noah
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