Clarkson man sentenced for dealing meth

COLUMBUS -- A 23-year-old Clarkson man who “sacrificed” everything to maintain his drug dealer lifestyle was sentenced to three to five years in prison during a Platte County District Court sentencing hearing.

District Judge Robert Steinke sentenced Joshua Ertzner to prison after rejecting a suggestion that the defendant was a candidate for the Nebraska Work Ethics Camp or intense supervised probation.

“You sacrificed everything in your life that should be important to you to drugs,’’ Steinke told Ertzner from the bench.

“All your friends are either drug sellers or drug users. Probation would depreciate the significance of your offense.”

Ertzner pleaded guilty last month to delivery of a controlled substance (meth) in connection with the distribution of methamphetamine in the Columbus area.

He was one of a dozen people arrested in a roundup of suspected drug dealers in late-September.

Delivery of meth is a Class II felony, punishable by a maximum of 50 years imprisonment and a minimum of one year imprisonment.

The judge said Ertzner also has a drug distribution case pending in Colfax County District Court.

“Your life has been consumed by drugs,’’ Steinke told the defendant. “You are in dire need of assistance with a drug problem that has landed you where are today.”

Eight men and four women were arrested during a two-week period in September by officers from the SNARE Drug Task Force.

The September arrest affidavits filed in the individual cases of the 12 defendants detailed informants meeting with the suspects at homes or in vehicles while wearing recording devices and making meth buys over a period stretching for several months.

Drug task force officials said the arrests are part of a long-term investigation that is ongoing with more arrests planned for the future.