WEBSTER CITY — A Webster City man will go to prison because a federal wiretap caught him arranging to acquire meth over the phone.

Gabriel Allen Pelz, 44, from Webster City, was sentenced Nov. 29 to more than 15 years in federal prison, according to the United States Attorney’s Office, Northern District of Iowa.

Pelz pleaded guilty on May 18 to one count of possession with intent to distribute a controlled substance and one count of use of a communication facility to commit a felony drug crime.

According to federal court authorities, Pelz ordered a pound of ice methamphetamine from a man he met in state prison. That man is Andrew Surprenant.

Surprenant had previously admitted he was involved with a Mexico-based drug trafficking organization. He was sentenced to 33 years in prison on Oct. 21.

Pelz met Surprenant while they were both incarcerated in state prison, according to information disclosed at his sentencing. Pelz, it said, was released from state custody in December 2021.

In early January 2022, Pelz contacted Surprenant and arranged to acquire a pound of ice methamphetamine from him, according to a press release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

At the time, law enforcement was monitoring a wiretap on Surprenant’s phone and intercepted the conversations between the two men.

Subsequently, law enforcement monitored Surprenant’s residence and watched Pelz arrive there, court information shows.

After Pelz left, he was stopped by officers who recovered a pound of ice methamphetamine from him.

He later admitted that he got the ice methamphetamine from Surprenant and intended to distribute it in the Webster City area.

Pelz was sentenced in Cedar Rapids by United States District Court Judge C.J. Williams.

He was sentenced to 188 months in prison, which is slightly more than 15 and a half years. He’ll also serve a six-year term of supervised release after he’s released from prison. There is no parole in the federal system.

Pelz is being held in the United States Marshal’s custody until he can be transported to a federal prison, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Dillan Edwards and was investigated as part of the Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force — OCDETF — program of the United States Department of Justice through a cooperative effort of the Federal Bureau of Investigation; the Tri-County Drug Enforcement Task Force consisting of the Waterloo Police Department, Cedar Falls Police Department, Black Hawk County Sheriff’s Department, Evansdale Police Department, Waverly Police Department, Hudson Police Department, La Porte City Police Department, and the Bremer County Sheriff’s Department; the Iowa Division of Narcotics Enforcement; the Drug Enforcement Administration; the United States Postal Inspection Service; and Homeland Security Investigations.