Wisconsin Man Sentenced to 10 Years for Drug Trafficking While Out on Bond in State Case
Mark Wortham, 39, of Weston, a city in Marathon County, Wisconsin, was sentenced last week by Chief U.S. District Judge James D. Peterson to 10 years in federal prison for possessing 50 grams or more of methamphetamine intended for distribution and maintaining a drug trafficking premises. Chadwick M. Elgersma, United States Attorney for the Western District of Wisconsin, announced the sentence. Wortham pleaded guilty to the charges on August 26, 2026.
From May through November 2025, while out of custody on bond awaiting sentencing in a state drug trafficking case, Wortham sold drugs to an informant on five occasions from his house in Wausau. When law enforcement later searched the house, they found nearly 200 grams of various controlled substances in his bedroom, over $5,000 in cash, a digital scale, drug paraphernalia, and a hidden storage compartment in his staircase. Wortham admitted to recently having purchased five pounds of methamphetamine. He also maintained a succession plan for continued drug dealing when he went to prison.
At sentencing, Judge Peterson found the aggravating facts outweighed the mitigating facts, noting that Wortham was more than a retail drug dealer, sold high quantities of drugs, had a history of drug trafficking, and had behaved vindictively in seeking retribution against a drug customer.
The charges resulted from an investigation by the FBI's Central Wisconsin Narcotics Task Force, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, the Wisconsin Department of Justice Division of Criminal Investigation, the Wausau Police Department, the Marathon County Sheriff's Office, and other agencies. Assistant U.S. Attorney Steven Ayala prosecuted the case. (Source: U.S. Department of Justice)
Source: U.S. Department of Justice
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：美国司法部总部大楼（联邦固定图库）。 / Photo: U.S. Department of Justice headquarters building (federal asset library).
