2 men to serve concurrent sentences for heroin ring

Two men already serving lengthy state prison terms in connection with heroin overdose deaths in Waukesha County were sentenced in federal court on Thursday for their roles in a heroin ring conspiracy that led to 11 overdoses, five of them fatal.

Jason Lund and Luke Bandkowski were linked to two heroin deaths each in Waukesha County and were convicted in federal court of conspiracy to distribute heroin resulting in death. They were arrested as a result of an investigation and sting dubbed "Operation Lake Effect" that started in early 2007.

In back-to-back sentencing hearings in U.S. District Court in Milwaukee, Judge J.P. Stadtmueller sentenced Lund to 14 years and seven months in prison and Bandkowski to 13 years and four months. Bandkowski received a shorter sentence in part because his criminal record was less than Lund's.

In both cases, the sentences Stadtmueller meted out were less than the prison terms Lund and Bandkowski received in Waukesha County Circuit Court after being convicted of first-degree reckless homicide.

And Stadtmueller's sentences won't add any more time behind bars for the two men because the judge ordered the federal prison terms to be served at the same time as the state's.

On April 30, Lund, 25, of Wauwatosa was sentenced in Waukesha County to 15 years in prison for the heroin deaths in 2008 of David Knuth, 24, of the City of Pewaukee and Andrew M. Goetzke, 19, of the Village of Pewaukee.

Bandkowski, 30, of Genesee was sentenced in August to 18 years in connection with causing the December 2007 death of Joshua J. Carroll, 26, of the Town of Waukesha and the February 2008 death of Jeffrey S. Topczewski, 22, of Muskego.