FARGO — One of the men arrested in one of several raids during a concerted multi-agency effort to target people selling fentanyl pills in the community after

an increase in overdoses in August 2022

was sentenced Tuesday afternoon to ten years in prison.

Shermaine Lewis was one of three men arrested after the Red River Valley SWAT team executed a search warrant at a south Fargo apartment on Oct. 25, 2022. Officers found large amounts of fentanyl pills, cocaine, marijuana and prescription drugs, along with several guns and more than $21,000 in cash during the search.

Lewis and the other two men, Rickey Walker and Aaron Bennett,

were charged for the first time in state court

one felony count each of conspiracy to possess opiates with intent to manufacture or deliver.

In March 2023, Lewis was federally indicted on drug trafficking conspiracy charges along with another man, Ian Shack. Shack also pleaded guilty and was sentenced to ten years in prison earlier this year.

Lewis pleaded guilty in June. In sentencing, Chief Justice Peter Welte noted that the offense level for Lewis’s murder was higher because of his possession of three handguns, including one with an obliterated serial number.

Welte said he has concerns about Lewis’ affinity for guns, adding details of a case against Lewis in Ramsey County, Minnesota. That case stemmed from a 2021 traffic stop during which Lewis allegedly fled from police in St. Paul and got rid of a custom-made polymer 9mm handgun loaded with a 30-round magazine as officers searched for him. A K9 later located the gun and DNA analysis matched it to Lewis, Welte said.

Lewis, who turns 25 in a few days and is originally from Mississippi, told the court he was in the “wrong place at the wrong time” when he was arrested and said that while he had made some mistakes, he was not a rea and that he hoped to be able to spend time with his 3-year-old son before he grows up.

Welte sentenced Lewis to a mandatory minimum of ten years in prison and said he would leave it up to the Bureau of Prisons to calculate how much credit Lewis will receive for the time he will already serve. Lewis’ attorney, Luke Heck, earlier asked the judge to give Lewis credit for the more than two years he’s been in custody, beginning with his 2022 arrest, rather than starting credit with the 2023 federal indictment.

One of the other men Lewis was arrested with in Fargo was also federally indicted late last year. Bennett pleaded guilty to trafficking fentanyl in July and is scheduled to be sentenced later this month. The third man, Walker, pleaded guilty to state charges against him in May 2023 and was sentenced to five years in state prison. State Department of Corrections records show he was paroled in July.