DRUG INFORMANT GETS 3 MONTHS

500 Doses of Ecstasy Sold to Undercover Agents Were Really Primatene

BILOXI - A federal judge Monday ordered a paid drug informant from
Lakeshore to serve three months in prison for conspiring to defraud
the government of $6,000 in an undercover drug operation.

U.S. District Judge David Bramlett also sentenced Jeremy Josh
LaFontaine to pay a $2,500 fine and to spend at least two years on
supervised probation after his release from prison.

LaFontaine, 19, pleaded guilty to the charge in November along with
Don Anthony Hunter, 31, also of Lakeshore. Hunter received a lesser
sentence in federal court Monday.

LaFontaine was a confidential informant when he persuaded Hunter, 31,
to go along with him on a scheme to sell 500 doses of ecstasy to
undercover agents at a Bay St. Louis hotel in July. The ecstasy pills,
however, were tablets of Primatene, which is used in making
methamphetamine.

LaFontaine apologized to the judge, saying he "got caught up in the
moment of making money."

LaFontaine must report to a federal prison on June 1. After serving
his sentence, he will remain on supervised probation.

Bramlett placed Hunter on electronic supervision for two months and
ordered him to pay a $2,500 fine. Though Hunter will be under house
arrest, he will be allowed to work, but any other trips must be
approved in advance, Bramlett said.

The men were arrested by agents with the Gulf Coast High-Intensity
Drug Trafficking Area, state Bureau of Narcotics, and the Bay St.
Louis/Waveland Narcotics Task Force.

Authorities said LaFontaine believed the drug buy with Hunter would be
a "walk," a term narcotics officers use for making an undercover buy
that could result in a later arrest. The practice is used to help
build a case against suspected drug dealers.