A 30-year-old Las Vegas man was sentenced to 23 2/3 years in federal prison yesterday for his part in a methamphetamine conspiracy that delivered ice from Nevada to Maui.

Leandro Gomez III, who pleaded guilty to ice-trafficking charges, was described by federal authorities as the supplier who sold up to seven pounds of the drug to Maui defendants in May last year.

U.S. District Judge Michael Seabright sentenced Gomez to 284 months in prison.

Federal prosecutors called the drug ring a "large-scale organization" which shipped multipound quantities of ice by mail or by couriers to Maui.

The case against Gomez and nine others involved cell-phone taps, according to Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Kawahara.

The 10 include two other Las Vegas residents and seven Maui residents. All 10 have pleaded guilty to ice-trafficking counts. All but two have been sentenced, according to federal prosecutors.

Gomez has been given the stiffest sentence so far. The other seven received terms ranging from four years to 16 1/2 years. Among them is Reed Kaleookalani Aken Sr., 37, a former Maui police officer who prosecutors say left the force before his involvement in the drug ring. Aken received a four-year term.