Suspected members of an interstate drug ring make their initial appearance in federal court

GREAT FALLS – Two Michigan men and a Montanan made their initial appearance in federal court today on suspicion of trafficking methamphetamine onto the Fort Peck Indian Reservation, Acting U.S. Attorney Mark Steger Smith said.

Vincent Earl Thompson, 26, from Clayton, Michigan; Derrick Byrd, 38, from Detroit, Michigan; and Michael Dean Grey Bear, 24, from Poplar, were arrested in September 2026 on suspicion of possessing methamphetamine with the intent to distribute. 

The government alleges in court documents that Grey Bear was part of a drug trafficking operation that included Thompson and Byrd, who together moved significant amounts of meth from Michigan to the Fort Peck Indian Reservation. The three men were arrested while traveling together onto the Fort Peck Indian Reservation with methamphetamine in the vehicle.

This prosecution is part of the Homeland Security Task Force (HSTF) initiative established by Executive Order 14159, Protecting the American People Against Invasion. The HSTF is a whole-of-government partnership dedicated to eliminating criminal cartels, foreign gangs, transnational criminal organizations, and human smuggling and trafficking rings operating in the United States and abroad. Through historic interagency collaboration, the HSTF directs the full might of United States law enforcement towards identifying, investigating, and prosecuting the full spectrum of crimes committed by these organizations, which have long fueled violence and instability within our borders. In performing this work, the HSTF places special emphasis on investigating and prosecuting those engaged in child trafficking or other crimes involving children. The HSTF further utilizes all available tools to prosecute and remove the most violent criminal aliens from the United States. HSTF Montana comprises agents and officers from federal, state and local agencies with the prosecution being led by Assistant United States Attorney Thomas Godfrey for the District of Montana.