District Judge Camela C. Theeler has sentenced a Pine Ridge, South Dakota, woman convicted of Conspiracy to Distribute a Controlled Substance. The sentencing took place on April 6, 2026.
Shauntel Shangreaux, 32, was sentenced to 19 years and two months in federal prison, followed by five years of supervised release, and ordered to pay a $100 special assessment to the Federal Crime Victims Fund.
Shangreaux was indicted for Conspiracy to Distribute a Controlled Substance by a federal grand jury in February 2025. She pleaded guilty on December 29, 2025.
Throughout 2023, Shangreaux distributed multiple ounces of fentanyl and multiple pounds of methamphetamine throughout the Rapid City community and on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. Her principal source for the drugs was the drug trafficking organization leader, Juan Sertuche, who was convicted at trial in January 2026. Between 2002 and September 2023, Juan Sertuche led a drug distribution conspiracy and provided hundreds of pounds of methamphetamine and tens and thousands of fentanyl pills to multiple sub-dealers, including Shangreaux, to be further distributed in the Rapid City and Pine Ridge areas of South Dakota.
“Shangreaux was a key lieutenant in Sertuche’s interstate criminal operation,” said U.S. Attorney Parsons. “Thanks to the dedicated efforts of the FBI, DCI, Rapid City Police, the Oglala Sioux Tribe Department of Public Safety, and the BIA, our federal prosecutors have been dismantling that organization piece by piece.”
This case is part of Operation Take Back America, a nationwide initiative that marshals the full resources of the Department of Justice to repel the invasion of illegal immigration, achieve the total elimination of cartels and transnational criminal organizations (TCOs), and protect our communities from the perpetrators of violent crime. Operation Take Back America streamlines efforts and resources from the Department’s Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces (OCDETFs) and Project Safe Neighborhood (PSN).
This case was investigated by the Federal Bureau of Investigation, South Dakota Division of Criminal Investigation, Rapid City Police Department, Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Oglala Sioux Tribe-Department of Public Safety (OSTDPS). Assistant U.S. Attorney Paige M. Petersen prosecuted the case.
Shangreaux was immediately remanded to the custody of the U.S. Marshals Service. ###
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