A St. Martinville man who was involved in large drug bust seven years ago was sentenced Thursday in U.S. District Court to 12 years and seven months in federal prison for drug trafficking.

Irvin J. Butler, 41, also will be on five years of post-release supervision.

Butler pleaded guilty in May to possession with intent to distribute methamphetamine and admitted that he was having packages of meth sent to his girlfriend.

U.S. Postal Inspection Service agents on March 26, 2019 intercepted a suspicious package that was mailed from Arizona to an address in Lafayette.

A drug-sniffing K9 unit alerted on the package and later that day agents were able to secure a search warrant. Agents conducted a controlled delivery of the package to the address, an address where Butler’s girlfriend lived.

Officials said the girlfriend took possession of the package, which contained more than four pounds of meth.

An investigation continued and agents found that Butler had made two wire transfers to a person in Arizona and had been tracking the package on the internet after it had been placed in the mail in Arizona. The girlfriend admitted to agents that she had been dating Butler and that he was sending packages to her residence.

Butler also was found to have sent a text message to the woman, telling her that a package was going to be delivered that day.

The Acadiana Criminalistics Laboratory conducted an analysis and the results confirmed that the substance was in fact methamphetamine.

The case was investigated by the U.S. Postal Inspection Service and was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Craig R. Bordelon.

Butler has a history of dealing drugs, including a large bust in 2015.

Butler, then 34, was arrested on suspicion of dealing drugs out of his Catahoula Highway residence.

Narcotic agents with the St. Martin Parish Sheriff’s Office, executed a search warrant at the residence, discovered a large quantity of methamphetamine, cocaine, marijuana, hash, and liquid codeine. The estimated street value of the recovered drugs was $120,000.

Butler later served a short stint in prison.