Man allegedly caught with nearly 3 pounds of meth charged with trafficking
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POCATELLO — A man police say was traveling through Pocatello with just under three pounds of methamphetamine faces a felony charge.
Richard Eugene Beeson, 45, of North Dakota, has been charged with trafficking in meth, court records show.
An Idaho State Police Trooper patrolling Interstate 86 just before 9 a.m. June 6, conducted a traffic stop on a black 2023 Dodge Charger with Minnesota plates for changing lanes without using a signal, according to an affidavit of probable cause.
The driver, Beeson, told the trooper he was returning from a three-day visit with an uncle in Chandler, Arizona. When the trooper asked when Beeson went to Arizona, he could not recall, the affidavit says.
The trooper asked Beeson if he would provide consent for the car to be searched. He allegedly told the trooper he had nothing to hide, but knows his rights.
“Beeson would not give me a yes or no,” the affidavit says.
While a second trooper checked Beeson’s license, the initial officer had his drug-detection canine perform an open-air sniff near the Charger.
During a “free pass” around the vehicle, the dog signaled the detection of drugs near the front passenger-side quarter panel of the Charger. The dog then began “alerting” to the existence of drugs near the front of the Charger.
Due to the dog’s mannerisms, the trooper tried to direct the dog to smell around the trunk, but the dog kept sniffing toward the front of the car.
The trooper noted in police reports the wind at the time was blowing from the back of the car toward the front.
Troopers informed Beeson they were going to search his vehicle, and attempted to detain him, but he resisted and pulled away from the troopers multiple times. When one of the troopers told the other to let Beeson go and the trooper would tase him, Beeson stopped resisting.
Inside the trunk of the Charger, the trooper found a lockbox. The trooper then found a key to the lockbox inside the cabin of the vehicle and unlocked the box.
The trooper found a THC vape pen and a safe inside the lockbox.
The trooper returned to Beeson and asked if there were any drugs inside the safe, but Beeson refused to answer. Beeson was then put into the back of the patrol vehicle.
As they continued their search, troopers found a key for the safe inside the center console. When they opened the safe, they found a “large amount” of a white substance they recognized to be methamphetamine.
The suspected meth was tested and weighed, and returned a presumptive positive and a gross weight of 1,350.9 grams — about 2.98 pounds.
Beeson was taken to Bannock County Jail, where he was booked and is being held on a $150,000 bond.
Though Beeson has been charged with this crime, it does not necessarily mean he committed it. Everyone is presumed innocent until they are proven guilty.
If he is found guilty, Beeson could face a maximum sentence of life in prison.
He is scheduled to appear in court before Magistrate Judge David Cousin for a preliminary hearing on July 18.