Man sentenced to prison for trafficking meth in sriracha sauce
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IDAHO FALLS – A local man who hid drugs in sauce was sentenced on meth trafficking charges Wednesday.
District Judge Bruce Pickett sentenced Derek Bryan Lee Gandall to 5 to 10 years in prison for felony drug trafficking of methamphetamine. Gandall was ordered to pay $15,785 in legal fees as well.
Other charges were dropped during a plea agreement.
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In November 2021, Idaho Falls Police learned of a potentially stolen rental car. The rental company told officers that a 2020 white Jeep Grand Cherokee had been rented by Gandall and he had failed to return it.
Four days later, officers spotted a “stolen white Jeep” in Idaho Falls, according to a department news release.
An officer working under cover used a fake Facebook account to set up a time and place to buy drugs. When officers arrived, Gandall was in a black Chevrolet Silverado. He “exited the vehicle and began to run around the north side of the motel,” according to court documents.
Officers caught him and found a white powdery substance on him. They also found a gun in his truck, and confirmed that Gandall was previously a convicted felon.
Additional items were found, including 250 9mm rounds, handgun magazines, a box of glass meth pipes, empty baggies, a scale and several hundred “dirty thirty” fentanyl pills. Inside a black backpack were two large bundles of sriracha sauce and mustard wrapped in cellophane. It was later determined to be meth.
Gandall told the officers he “got the product that way and it was used to try and mask the smell from drug dogs.”