Infinite Advancement Properties LLC promoted itself as a go-to business for home repairs in Erie.

“Your one stop shop for home improvement,” it declared on Facebook in November 2021. Its posts featured photos of newly patched drywall.

Infinite Advancement’s business turned out to include something other than home improvement.

It was a conduit for laundering proceeds from the sale of crystal methamphetamine, heroin, cocaine and the opioid painkiller hydrocodone in Erie from March 2019 to September 2022, according to records in U.S. District Court in Erie.

Infinite Advancement’s owner, Erie resident Larry Tremel Alexander, who “has a background in property management,” according to the court records, was charged with using the business and the bank account of his girlfriend to hide his drug profits and to fund his drug operation.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office said investigators suspected some of the money paid for Alexander’s trips to and from Benton Harbor, Michigan, west of Kalamazoo on Lake Michigan.

Benton Harbor, the U.S. Attorneys’ Office said in court records, was Alexander’s “drug source city.”

And Alexander, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said, was one of the dealers responsible for “the rampant distribution” in Erie of crystal meth — a rock-like form of meth, known as “ice” or “glass,” that is smoked or injected. It is produced using industrial and pharmaceutical chemicals and is more powerful than powdered meth.

Alexander’s career as an illicit businessman has ended.

He has been sentenced to six years in federal prison and four years of supervised release. He must also forfeit $22,603 in cash.

Alexander, others indicted in Operation Ice Age

U.S. District Judge Susan Paradise Baxter imposed the sentence on May 29.

The sentence came after Alexander, 47, known as Mel, pleaded guilty in March to both charges against him. They are a felony count of conspiracy to traffic in more than 50 grams of meth as well as quantities of heroin, cocaine and hydrocodone; and a felony count of conspiracy to commit money laundering.

The six-year sentence was recommended in the plea deal between the defense and the prosecutor, Assistant U.S. Attorney Paul Sellers, according to court records. The sentence was within the recommended range under the federal sentencing guidelines for Alexander’s case.

Alexander and five of his accused associates, including his girlfriend, were indicted in March 2023. The indictment marked another example of federal, state and local enforcement agencies working to dismantle a large-scale drug operation in Erie.

Investigators dubbed the probe Operation Ice Age. It was a federal Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Force operation. The task forces target “transnational organized crime, money laundering and major drug trafficking networks,” according to the Justice Department.

Story continues

Wiretaps offer critical evidence in meth probe

The authorities built the investigation partly by tapping the cellphones of Alexander and his accused second-in-command, Erie resident Dennis L. Jones, according to court records.

Jones is the only other defendant in the case to plead guilty and get sentenced.

Baxter on April 30 ordered Jones, 45, to serve a federal prison term of three years and one month and three years of supervised release. The sentence, which the U.S. Attorney’s Office and the defense agreed upon, was for Jones’ guilty plea to a conspiracy count related to trafficking in meth and and cocaine, according to court records.

The next defendant scheduled to change a not-guilty plea is Alexander’s girlfriend, Malissa Mae Perry. Baxter on May 17 set her plea hearing for July 31.

Perry, 44, is accused of one count each of conspiracy related to trafficking in hydrocodone and conspiracy to commit money laundering. She is free on an unsecured bond of $10,000.

Money laundering and an ‘entrepreneurial’ defendant

Alexander and Perry are the only two of the six defendants indicted on money-laundering charge. The IRS developed both of them as suspects by analyzing their bank accounts and the accounts for Alexander’s Infinite Advancement Properties, according to a sentencing memorandum that Sellers, the prosecutor, filed in Alexander’s case.

Over the course of the drug conspiracy, from March 2019 to September 2022, according to the memo, Alexander reported $2,555.55 in income but deposited $51,146.25 in the account for Infinite Advancement Properties. Perry reported income of $95,443.89 but made bank deposits totaling $171,527 during the same time period, according to the memo.

“Investigators were able to uncover a readily discernible pattern where cash deposits by Perry and Alexander were then repurposed for withdrawals and payments in furtherance of Alexander’s drug enterprise,” according to the memo. It states that “Perry’s bank account also appears to have funded Alexander’s trips” to Benton Harbor.

Once he leaves prison, Alexander intends to be a legitimate businessman.

In the defense’s sentencing memo, Alexander’s court-appointed lawyer, Robert S. Carey Jr., of Pittsburgh, said Alexander wants to get drug treatment while incarcerated. Also, according to the memo, “with his background in property management, Mr. Alexander is interested in construction and desires to earn certifications in HVAC, electrical and plumbing.”

“Mr. Alexander is entrepreneurial,” according to the memo. “He has started and managed several businesses.”

Contact Ed Palattella at epalattella@timesnews.com or 814-870-1813. Follow him on X @ETNpalattella.

This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: Erie crystal meth dealer sentenced for drug ring, money laundering