STIFF SENTENCES FOR TWO METH-MAKERS

PEORIA - A prison sentence of life and one just shy of 25 years were handed
down Thursday in U.S. District Court for two men who made several pounds of
methamphetamine.

Michael Mason, 36, of Havana had no other option but life in prison. He
told U.S. District Judge Joe B. McDade during the brief sentencing hearing
that he had faith in God that everything would work out.

Mason pleaded guilty to making meth from 2001 to 2003. Authorities have
said Mason had labs in Fulton, Mason and Menard counties.

In a unrelated case, Kelly Hanson, 34, who is incarcerated in the Illinois
Department of Corrections, was sentenced to just shy of 25 years for
conspiracy to make meth. His 298-month prison term is to run concurrently
with a 12-year sentence he is serving on a 2001 Tazewell County drug
conviction.

According to his plea agreement, filed in court in July, Hanson worked with
others to make the drug at least 20 times. He also stole anhydrous ammonia,
which can be used to make meth.

Authorities say Hanson made 9 to 12 kilograms of the drug over a two-year
period beginning in 2000.

His arrest was part of Operation Rattlesnake, an ongoing federal crackdown
on meth production in Tazewell County.

Another Rattlesnake defendant, Kevin H. Carlson, 24, of Pekin, pleaded
guilty to conspiracy to manufacture meth and possession of a firearm during
a drug-trafficking crime. He conspired with others to make up to 5
kilograms of the drug from 2001 to 2004 in Tazewell County, authorities said.

When sentenced on May 27, Carlson faces up to life in prison.

Operation Rattlesnake, formed in 2003, and its predecessor in Fulton and
Knox counties, Operation Trapline, have netted more than 50 indictments in
a four-year period.