Former Outlaws player guilty in cocaine conspiracy

BILLINGS, Mont. — Former Billings Outlaws football player Shon Flores pleaded guilty Wednesday to trafficking nearly 20 pounds of cocaine around the state from August 2008 to June 2009.

Flores, 32, entered his plea to conspiracy to possess cocaine with intent to distribute it. U.S. District Judge Richard Cebull scheduled his sentencing for Feb. 10, and Flores faces a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years in prison.

Prosecutors say Flores' co-conspirators were a loosely knit group of current and former players with the Indoor Football League team, and their customers included business owners, professionals and salesmen. Court records did not identify those people.

However, later Wednesday, three more former Outlaws players — Andy Petek, 31; Chase Raynock, 32; and Robert E. Reed, 34 — were arraigned on conspiracy to possess cocaine with the intent to distribute it and possession with the intent to distribute cocaine. Terra Chesarek, 37 and Edward Alvin White II, 29, were arraigned on the same charges before U.S. Magistrate Carolyn Ostby.

Pleading guilty Wednesday along with Flores were Athena Beaumont, 28, and Tara Rauschendorfer, 24, who lived with Flores. They are scheduled to be sentenced Feb. 4.

Prosecutors say the FBI and the Drug Enforcement Administration were investigating separate cocaine cases in Billings in late 2008 when they realized the suspects had the same supply source, determined to be Flores. Undercover agents from both agencies purchased cocaine from Flores and others to build their case.

Authorities determined Flores or others obtained the cocaine from Salt Lake City.

Flores, a defensive back, earned second-team All-America honors from The Sports Network as a senior at Montana State in 1999. He transferred to MSU from West Hills Junior College in 1998, earning all-Big Sky Conference honors both seasons. He is originally from Kailua, Hawaii. His attorney, Vern Woodward, said Flores played for the Outlaws for six years before leaving in 2006.

Petek, a Helena native who lists a Livingston address, and Raynock, of Billings, are former University of Montana football players who last played for the Outlaws in 2004.