Gillette, Wyoming. — A Gillette man who boasted to investigators about his drug-dealing abilities and admitted to pistol-whipping a man during an armed robbery last summer was sentenced to 20 years in federal prison last week, according to court documents and a Justice Department statement.
Eli Alan Elbert, 44, faced two sets of federal charges. One was for conspiring to distribute methamphetamine and using a firearm in the commission of a drug trafficking crime. The other charge was for felon in possession of ammunition.
State drug enforcement agents identified Elbert as a distributor for Tanna Kirk, who was arrested on May 29, 2024, after meeting an undercover agent with more than a pound of methamphetamine in her vehicle to sell, according to a federal complaint.
Kirk and Elbert were charged in a June 29 investigation into a reported robbery on Hillside Drive, where two men claimed that a group of four people dressed in black and hiding their faces forced their way into their shop.
According to affidavits of probable cause filed in the case, the men claimed they were pepper sprayed and held down at gunpoint while the four defendants searched their vehicles and pockets, eventually taking $80 in cash and a phone.
Kirk had reportedly been in a relationship with one of the men, telling deputies that he had recently taken her away from a bar against her will and then returned her to the bar after she fled through a field, according to the affidavits. She reportedly told Elbert and the others about the incident before confronting the men.
Elbert allegedly told agents that the group intended to “scare and teach them a lesson,” according to the federal complaint. The firearm he had used to strike one of the victims was discovered at his home on a TV stand, along with seven rounds of ammunition in the magazine, resulting in one set of charges.
Elbert reportedly told agents after his arrest on state robbery charges that “he had been a drug dealer most of his life and it’s what he loved to do,” according to the federal complaint.
Elbert will be on supervised release for five years after serving 20 years.
The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, the Drug Enforcement Administration, the Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation, and the Campbell County Sheriff’s Department all conducted investigations into this crime.
Cameron J. Cook, an assistant United States attorney, prosecuted the case. On May 29, Chief US District Judge Scott W. Skavdahl imposed the sentence in Casper.
