By Larry Stovall
Broken Bow police and McCurtain County Sheriff’s deputies wound up seizing several times the amount of presumed methamphetamine required for a trafficking charge on New Years Day after a traffic stop led to its discovery, according to a report from the BBPD.
The report from Broken Bow narcotics officer John Jones stated that he saw a Chevrolet truck driving north on North Park Drive that day and noted that the vehicle’s tag light was defective. Jones, after informing a McCurtain County Sheriff’s deputy in the area of the truck, followed the vehicle. Jones and Deputy Brock Timms both observed the vehicle cross the center line of the roadway.
A traffic stop followed with the vehicle pulled over by Timms on the 700 block of North Park. The driver, as it turned out, had a failure-to-pay warrant, but Jones noted that he had recently heard that the passenger had been selling “large amounts of methamphetamine”.
Jones went to the location of the traffic stop and spoke with the passenger. When asked if he had weapons on him, the suspect said he had several knives, which he then handed over to officers. He also consented to a search and Jones found a metal container with three different types of pills in it, one of which was a controlled substance, and $600 in cash.
The man said that he did not have a prescription for the pills, and Jones told deputies they could search the vehicle on account of the pills being discovered.
Timms and reserve deputy Mathew Crowell discovered a black box inside the truck that had two bags of a crystalline substance resembling methamphetamine and a glass smoking pipe inside. Another bag found under the front passenger seat contained more presumed methamphetamine, as well as a digital scale and a glasses case with still more narcotics inside, along with a digital scale.
None of the truck’s three occupants (a woman had been riding in the center passenger seat) claimed the crystalline substance as their own and the woman, Jones noted, initially gave a false name.
The woman, who Jones said tried to distance herself from the other two as much as possible, finally stated that the suspect had come to the driver’s house and asked him, as well as herself, to give him a ride around. She said the suspect had showed her the meth and said he “needed to get rid of it”.
She admitted to sending multiple texts trying to find a buying and then she and the driver took him to a couple of houses.
The driver continued to deny any knowledge of the methamphetamine and said that while the suspect stated he had some meth, told deputies that he (the driver) had no idea how much or that he intended to sell it. He said the suspect had asked for a ride to the casino.
The suspect finally claimed the methamphetamine after this, Jones said, and told law enforcement that he had sold meth for “a long time” and that he has to in order to keep up with his own addiction. He said he had around three ounces of the substance.
The woman was placed into custody on Choctaw Tribal Nation warrants and the suspect was arrested for trafficking in methamphetamine, Jones reported.
The meth seized during the stop included a total of 38.8 grams in the black box, 63 grams in the container under the passenger seat and the eye-glass case had 5.2 grams, for a total of around 107 grams, over five times the amount required in Oklahoma for a trafficking charge.
All of the seized material field tested positive for methamphetamine and has been sent to the OSBI for further analysis.
