Madison Man Sentenced to 5 Years for Federal Drug Trafficking Charge
Noah Hodges was sentenced to five years in federal prison after pleading guilty to a drug trafficking offense.
4 reports on this incident · first at Aug 15, 2026, 10:19 a.m. ET
Earlier reports
Aug 15, 2026, 10:25 a.m. ET
Madison Man's Guilty Plea to Methamphetamine Charge Preceded Five-Year Sentence
Noah A. Hodges, 44, of Madison, Wisconsin, pleaded guilty on May 5, 2026 to possessing 50 grams or more of methamphetamine intended for distribution, according to an announcement issued by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Western District of Wisconsin on August 14, 2026. The plea was an admission to that single charge. Under it, the quantity attributed to him and the appropriate sentence were left for the court to weigh.
The office's announcement, made by U.S. Attorney Chadwick M. Elgersma, states that U.S. District Judge William M. Conley sentenced Hodges to 5 years in federal prison, to be followed by 5 years of supervised release. According to the announcement, Judge Conley weighed the significant quantity of methamphetamine involved and the fact that Hodges committed the new crimes while on state supervision against Hodges's progress on pretrial release.
The announcement states that in early 2024 law enforcement began investigating members of a drug trafficking organization operating in Dane County, working with confidential informants to purchase drugs and seizing drugs, firearms and cash during search warrants at residences and vehicles associated with the organization. Hodges was identified as a distributor for the organization, the announcement says. After observing likely drug activity by Hodges on February 6, 2025, police contacted him in a vehicle and ultimately searched Hodges and the vehicle, seizing a total of 355 grams of methamphetamine and 12 grams of heroin/fentanyl. At the time, according to the announcement, Hodges was on state supervision for two felony intoxicated driving offenses; that supervision was later revoked and he served a revocation sentence in state prison.
The office lists the investigating agencies as the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, the ATF Madison Crime Gun Task Force, the Dane County Narcotics Task Force, the Wisconsin Department of Justice Division of Criminal Investigation, the Lake Winnebago Area Metropolitan Enforcement Group, the Wisconsin State Patrol and the Madison Police Department. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Steven P. Anderson and Kathryn Ginsberg prosecuted the case, which the office says is part of the Justice Department's Homeland Security Task Force Program initiative established by Executive Order 14159.
Aug 15, 2026, 10:23 a.m. ET
Madison Man Sentenced to Five Years for Methamphetamine Distribution
Noah A. Hodges, 44, of Madison, Wisconsin, has been sentenced to five years in federal prison for possessing 50 grams or more of methamphetamine intended for distribution, according to an announcement dated August 14, 2026 by Chadwick M. Elgersma, United States Attorney for the Western District of Wisconsin. The record states that U.S. District Judge William M. Conley imposed the term, to be followed by five years of supervised release, and that Hodges pleaded guilty to the charge on May 5, 2026.
According to the U.S. Attorney's Office record, law enforcement began investigating members of a drug trafficking organization operating in Dane County in early 2024, working with confidential informants to purchase drugs and seizing drugs, firearms and cash during search warrants at residences and vehicles associated with the organization. Hodges was identified as a distributor for the organization. The record states that after observing likely drug activity by Hodges on February 6, 2025, police contacted him in a vehicle and ultimately searched Hodges and the vehicle, seizing a total of 355 grams of methamphetamine and 12 grams of heroin/fentanyl.
The record states that Hodges was at the time on state supervision for two felony intoxicated driving offenses, that his supervision was later revoked and that he served a revocation sentence in state prison. In determining the federal sentence, Judge Conley weighed the quantity of methamphetamine involved and the fact that Hodges committed the new crimes while on state supervision against his progress on pretrial release, according to the announcement.
The office lists the investigating agencies as the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, the ATF Madison Crime Gun Task Force, the Dane County Narcotics Task Force, the Wisconsin Department of Justice Division of Criminal Investigation, the Lake Winnebago Area Metropolitan Enforcement Group, the Wisconsin State Patrol and the Madison Police Department. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Steven P. Anderson and Kathryn Ginsberg prosecuted the case, which the office says is part of the Justice Department's Homeland Security Task Force Program initiative established by Executive Order 14159.
Aug 15, 2026, 10:19 a.m. ETFirst report
Madison Man Sentenced to Five Years in Federal Methamphetamine Case
According to a press release from the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Western District of Wisconsin, announced August 14, 2026, Noah A. Hodges, 44, of Madison, Wisconsin, has been sentenced by U.S. District Judge William M. Conley to five years in federal prison for possessing 50 grams or more of methamphetamine intended for distribution. The release states the prison term will be followed by five years of supervised release, and that Hodges pleaded guilty to the charge on May 5, 2026. The announcement was made by Chadwick M. Elgersma, United States Attorney for the Western District of Wisconsin.
The release states that in early 2024 law enforcement began investigating members of a drug trafficking organization operating in Dane County, that officers worked with confidential informants to purchase significant quantities of drugs, and that drugs, firearms and cash were seized during search warrants executed at residences and vehicles associated with the organization. Hodges was identified as a distributor for the organization, according to the office. The release says that after observing likely drug activity by Hodges on February 6, 2025, police contacted him in a vehicle, and that law enforcement ultimately searched Hodges and the vehicle and seized a total of 355 grams of methamphetamine and 12 grams of heroin/fentanyl.
At the time, according to the release, Hodges was on state supervision for two felony intoxicated driving offenses; that supervision was later revoked and he served a revocation sentence in state prison. The office states that in determining the federal sentence, Judge Conley weighed the quantity of methamphetamine involved and the fact that Hodges committed the new crimes while on state supervision against Hodges's progress on pretrial release.
The office lists the investigating agencies as the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, the ATF Madison Crime Gun Task Force, the Dane County Narcotics Task Force, the Wisconsin Department of Justice Division of Criminal Investigation, the Lake Winnebago Area Metropolitan Enforcement Group, the Wisconsin State Patrol and the Madison Police Department. Assistant U.S. Attorneys Steven P. Anderson and Kathryn Ginsberg prosecuted the case. The release describes the prosecution as part of the Justice Department's Homeland Security Task Force Program initiative established by Executive Order 14159.
This account is drawn entirely from the Justice Department's announcement; the matter remains developing and no further record details are available at this time.
Was this report accurate and useful?
Sources
Revision history
- Version 316 Aug 2026, 19:55current
Updated story to incorporate conflicting descriptions of alleged conduct reported by news outlets.
- Version 216 Aug 2026, 17:54
Added the date of the sentencing, August 14, 2026, to the dek and the opening sentence, distinguishing it from the August 16, 2026 announcement date. Named the record supporting the case facts (the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Western District of Wisconsin press release) rather than referring generically to 'official records.' Added the 2024 origin of the Dane County investigation, the judge's stated sentencing considerations, the state revocation sentence, and the Executive Order 14159 basis for the HSTF program, all from the record text. Added the justice.gov source URL.
- Version 115 Aug 2026, 14:23current
First published.
- Version 115 Aug 2026, 14:19current
First published.
- Version 115 Aug 2026, 14:25current
First published.
- Version 116 Aug 2026, 17:52
First published.
How we work
This site models an investigative reporter rather than a wire desk. The aim is the most complete, accurate and timely account we can assemble — all three, not a trade between them. Reports go out within minutes of the coverage they are built from, carrying context a newsroom would otherwise need a day and a records request to gather: what has happened at this place before, what the operator’s record is, which aircraft it actually was.
Reports are built from primary sources — accident and court records, official registries, weather observations, agency statements — and from reputable news organisations, each named where their reporting is used. Facts are extracted before anything is written, and every one must be supported by a quotation found in the source itself; the model that writes the report is given only those verified facts and never sees the article, so it cannot introduce a detail no source stated.
Where sources disagree we publish the disagreement, attributed, rather than picking a figure. Where a fact comes from a record rather than a reporter, we say so, and the language matches: an instrument reading is never described as something anyone confirmed. Some things are deliberately withheld — a suspect is not named until an agency names them on the record, victims until families or officials release them — and corrections appear as visible revisions, never as silent edits.
None of that makes a report true. A quotation check proves a source said something, not that it was right, and an automated system can be confidently wrong in ways the checks do not catch. If something here is wrong, the feedback above is how it gets found. The full methodology, including what we refuse to publish.