Wyo Troop­ers busy with drug traffic

[PRESS RELEASE –THURSDAY, DECEMBER 17, 2009] Cheyenne – Troop­ers have made sev­eral sig­nif­i­cant arrests and seizures of ille­gal drugs dur­ing the last week on Wyoming’s roadways.

Three sep­a­rate inci­dents have resulted in the arrests of 4 indi­vid­u­als and the seizure of 1.25 pounds of hashish, 69 pounds of mar­i­juana, 4 glass con­tain­ers of mar­i­juana but­ter extract and just over $5,800.00 in U.S. currency.

Not all the events lead­ing up to the arrests began as traf­fic stops as most peo­ple would think.

The first of the events began on Fri­day, Decem­ber 11^th at mile post #12 on WYO 72, or approx­i­mately 4 miles north of Elk Moun­tain, a Trooper stopped behind a vehi­cle pulled over onto the high­way shoul­der that appeared to be a motorist need­ing assis­tance.  Upon con­tact with the dri­ver, 40 year-old Edward Gre­gory, he seemed to be extremely ner­vous. He handed the Trooper the vehi­cles car man­ual for the vehi­cle reg­is­tra­tion.  He then handed the Trooper some paper­work show­ing that he had failed to appear in court and thought that was his tem­po­rary driver’s license.

As if those two mis­takes were not bad enough, a Wyoming High­way Patrol K-9 then alerted to the out­side of Gregory’s rental vehi­cle.  In the back  seat Troop­ers dis­cov­ered 4 big duf­fle bags loaded with indi­vid­ual vac­uum sealed bags of high grade mar­i­juana.  Total weight of the seizure of high grade mar­i­juana was approx­i­mately 54 pounds.

Gre­gory, who stated he was from Santa Rosa, Cal­i­for­nia, was arrested and has been charged with felony pos­ses­sion of a con­trolled sub­stance and pos­ses­sion of a con­trolled sub­stance with intent to deliver.  His bond has been set at $50,000.00.

It is believed that Gre­gory was enroute from Santa Rosa, Cal­i­for­nia to Bal­ti­more, Mary­land.  The street value of the mar­i­juana is approx­i­mately $432,000.00.

The sec­ond event occurred on Sat­ur­day, Decem­ber 12^th approx­i­mately 10 miles east of Lyman on west­bound Inter­state 80.  48 year-old Joe Camp­bell of Col­fax, Cal­i­for­nia, was arrested for mis­de­meanor mar­i­juana pos­ses­sion.  Upon a search of his vehi­cle Troop­ers dis­cov­ered an enve­lope in the door pocket of the rental vehi­cle that con­tained just over $5,800.00 dollars.

Camp­bell could not come up with a legit­i­mate rea­son as to why he had so much cash.  It is believed that the cur­rency came from assets that were derived from, or were used to facil­i­tate crim­i­nal activ­ity.  The cur­rency could have been pro­ceeds from drug traf­fick­ing activ­i­ties, orga­nized crime or money laundering.

The exact undis­closed amount will be held for a period of approx­i­mately 6 months for the right­ful owner to file a claim for the money.  If no one files a legit­i­mate claim dur­ing that time period the cur­rency will then begin an asset for­fei­ture proceeding.

The asset for­fei­ture pro­ceed­ings could take an addi­tional 6 to 8 months.  The case has been turned over to Spe­cial Agents with the Divi­sion of Crim­i­nal Investigation.

Camp­bell was com­ing from Min­nesota with a final des­ti­na­tion in California.

The third event occurred on Mon­day, Decem­ber 14^th, approx­i­mately 1 mile east of Wamsut­ter on east­bound Inter­state 80.  Troop­ers were on scene
and work­ing a prior crash at that loca­tion when the dri­ver of a sec­ond vehi­cle lost con­trol of his vehi­cle and skid­ded up to the rear of the stopped high­way patrol vehicle.

When Troop­ers walked back to the vehi­cle to check on the vehi­cle occu­pants they could smell the odor of mar­i­juana com­ing from inside the vehi­cle. Troop­ers searched the inside of the vehi­cle and dis­cov­ered a big black duf­fle bag in the back seat of the vehicle.

Inside the duf­fle bag the found wrapped pack­ages that appeared to be Christ­mas presents.  Upon open­ing the “Christ­mas presents” the Troop­ers dis­cov­ered approx­i­mately 15 pounds of high grade mar­i­juana, 1.25 pounds of hashish and 4 glass jars filled with mar­i­juana but­ter extract.

The vehi­cles two occu­pants 22 year-old Saman­tha Ridge­way and 28 year-old Andrew Burger have been arrested and have been charged with felony pos­ses­sion of a con­trolled sub­stance and pos­ses­sion of a con­trolled sub­stance with intent to deliver.

The 15 pounds of high grade mar­i­juana would have a street value of approx­i­mately $120,000.00, the hashish would have an approx­i­mate street value of $11,340.00.  Mar­i­juana but­ter is made by cook­ing the mar­i­juana and reg­u­lar but­ter at a high tem­per­a­ture.  The result­ing prod­uct is then used for cook­ing.  It is dif­fi­cult to really put a street value on the end prod­uct due to unknown amount or THC con­tent of the “butter”.

Ridge­way and Burger were enroute from Salt Lake City, Utah with a final unknown loca­tion in their home town of Decatur, Illinois.

The Wyoming High­way Patrol con­tin­ues their inves­ti­ga­tion in all of the above cases.  Troop­ers are being assisted by Spe­cial Agents with the Wyoming Divi­sion of Crim­i­nal Investigation.