Thursday, March 06, 2014

Unusual Property Seizure from Plane and Hotel Room

From documents presented to Circuit Court Judge Bruce Waters, probable cause for securing the search warrant on a suspicious airplane and the hotel room of its pilot was established using a drug detection canine.

Powell Police Sargent Chad Miner brought in the department's drug detection dog to sniff the outside of the plane that landed suspiciously on the night of February 27th. The dog alerted on the plane's right door.

Cody Police Officer Ronald Parduba then interviewed an airport staff member who was on duty when 25 year old pilot Scott Lewis and his passenger landed. Parduba asked if the men had any bags with them when they deplaned and went to their hotel. The airport employee said the men had three bags with them, one looked particularly heavy. The Holiday Inn's manager confirmed that two men, as described by police, had arrived with three bags.

Parduba then received at search warrant for the hotel room from Judge Waters at 3:30 in the morning of February 28th. When officers searched the room, seized were two laptops, six electronic storage devices, fifteen cell phones, and three Idaho drivers' licenses, each with a different name.

Also seized was a duffel bag full of 12 vacuum sealed bags containing over 250,000 dollars in US Currency. Another $1,500 was seized from the pocket of a jacket in the room.

A search warrant for the plane was received later that same morning with Officer Parduba citing the drug detection dog's alerting on the right side of the plane and the plane being of high payload, which is typical of drug trafficking operations.

Seized from the plane were documents indicative of possible drug trafficking.

According to Cody Police Chief Perry Rockvam, the pilot's seized property, including the money and plane, has been turned over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Scott Lewis, of Colorado, faces two misdemeanor charges. When asked if it was customary to seize property in this manner, without evidence for a felony charge, Rockvam said that the case is not typical but "Obviously there are other things underlying."

Rockvam wouldn't comment further on the seizure of property.

 Cody Police are conducting extra patrols at Choice Aviation.

Pilot Scott Lewis has been released on his own recognizance.


Source:    http://www.mybighornbasin.com

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