The U.S. Marshals Service says a Billings man has been arrested in the Philippines on charges that he conspired to distribute heroin in Montana.

Chief Deputy Marshal Rod Ostermiller said Friday that authorities had been searching for Alexander Theodore Bean since his indictment last year.

Ostermiller says interviews with Bean's associates in Billings led the Marshals Service to alert authorities in the Philippines that he might be in that country. Bean was arrested in the city of Bolotan early Friday and is awaiting deportation back to the U.S.

Bean's indictment remains sealed. He faces federal charges of possession of and conspiracy to distribute heroin.

An alleged co-conspirator, William Ray Nelson, was arrested in Nevada last August and recently sentenced to more than three years in prison on drug charges.