BOZEMAN — A Bozeman man has been accused of drug distribution and child endangerment after law enforcement allegedly intercepted two packages containing cocaine that were addressed to him.
According to court documents, the United States Postal Service intercepted two packages they suspected contained illegal drugs. Upon inspection, one package contained 267 grams of cocaine; the other, an additional 125 grams of the drug. Together they totaled more than three-quarters of a pound of cocaine.
According to court documents, the packages were addressed to 42-year-old Jason Myers at his home on Sheridan Ave in Bozeman. Missouri River Drug Task Force officers searched Myers’ home and reportedly found drug paraphernalia, distribution materials, and Myers’ eight-year-old daughter. Court documents say detectives located a white powdery substance, suspected to be cocaine, inside a rolled-up dollar bill that was just five feet away from a doll house and a bucket of toys.
This case made me wonder, how often do the postal services here in Gallatin County deal with drugs being mailed?
“Unfortunately it’s not uncommon. Any of the parcel services, the U.S. Postal Service, UPS, FedEx, those are kind of the big names. But anywhere people can throw it in a box and ship it, they’ll try it,” says Nathan Kamerman.
Kamerman is the Missouri River Drug Task Force commander. He tells me the task force has seen everything come through the mail, but the most popular drugs they’re seeing?
“Fentanyl and cocaine are the biggest two we’ve seen come through in a little while. Of course, you get meth on occasion,” he says.
Because this is something Kamerman says isn’t uncommon, I asked how the task force is able to identify when packages have drugs in them.
“There’s a variety of methods that go into it. Oftentimes they’ll use K9, they can assist us in that process as well”.
And in this case, with an alleged three-quarters of a pound of cocaine being sent to Jason Myers, I asked Kamerman if that’s considered a lot.
He told me, “Yeah that’s a sizeable amount. In the last 10 years, to get a kilo up here would've been a big deal. It’s becoming more and more frequent as we have more and more population here. Demand for the drug is higher than it's ever been just based on population."
