Meth bust in Blue Bay area

BLUE BAY — Lake County Sheriff’s deputies made a significant drug bust that led to three arrests on Feb. 9, recovering methamphetamine and drug paraphernalia from a pair of motor homes in the Blue Bay area.

According to Lt. Mike Sargeant, the sheriff’s office received a tip and were called out to B 2,000 Road at approximately 6:18 p.m. last Monday evening. A total of four people — all of which are from Spokane, Wash. — were in the two mobile homes at the reported location.

Deputy Glenn Miller arrested Shawnda Huffman, 25, and Jon Soom, 34, on-site at that time as meth and drug paraphernalia were found in the 1973 Dodge mobile home the individuals were in. Huffman was charged with possession of dangerous drugs and possession of drug paraphernalia. Soom was charged with criminal possession of drug paraphernalia.

A third individual, John Lobitt, was also arrested on-site as he had two out-of-state warrants for arrest out of Washington.

Then, on Feb. 12 sheriff’s investigators got a search warrant for the second mobile home, a 1979 model. Sargeant reported that upon searching the other mobile home investigators found $17,500 cash, drug paraphernalia and what they believe to be more meth. Testing for the “suspect meth” evidence taken from the search is currently pending results.

The Lake County Sheriff’s police dog, Kilo, was used to search the mobile homes for the toxic drugs.

Sargeant added that there are strong suspicions that the individuals involved were players in drug trafficking in the area due to the fact that all the individuals were from Washington and had a large amount of cash on them. The mobile homes are currently secured as a crime scene while investigation into this case is ongoing. The work is being coordinated with Spokane law enforcement authorities.

The sheriff’s lieutenant explained that although Montana saw a large spike of meth discovery and meth labs statewide in 2000-2001, the number of meth labs found in the area and around the state has declined in recent years.

Sargeant added that authorities are now seeing more meth in the finished product form coming into Montana from Washington, California, and Mexico.

“Meth is still definitely predominant in this area,” Sargeant said.