Deputies make drug arrest in Troy
Sarah “Kaci” Sullivan, a 24-year-old Libby woman, was arrested on Feb. 7 by Lincoln County law enforcement officers on an outstanding warrant dating back to July 2014. Sullivan was indicted July 31, 2014 on five separate counts of criminal distribution of dangerous drugs in Lincoln County Justice Court.
The case goes back more than 3 years and involves confidential informants, wire taps, search warrants and cooperation between county, state and federal law enforcement groups.
According to the case report filed as part of the Affidavit of Probable Cause, a confidential informant referred to as CI-147 contacted Lincoln County sheriff’s deputies Dec. 13, 2011, and informant reported a known drug supplier had oxycodone available for sale. The supplier was reportedly acquiring the drugs from a third party, unnamed at the time.
Investigators applied for and received a wire search warrant for the supplier and arranged, through CI-147, for a purchase the next day.
Two law enforcement officers met with CI-147 on Dec. 14. As part of the preparation, officers searched the informant’s person and vehicle, attached a global positioning satellite device to the car and provided the informant with a backup recorder and $215 to purchase the drugs.
The recorded meeting between the informant and the supplier lasted longer than 30 minutes and referenced Sullivan as the supplier of the oxycodone pills. While waiting for Sullivan to arrive with the pills, the informant and the other supplier engaged in a discussion about methamphetamine dealers in the Troy and Bull Lake areas.
Following 20 minutes of recorded conversation, Sullivan arrived. CI-147 purchased five pills from Sullivan at $15 per pill. The pills were provided to investigators, along with the remaining $140 from the purchase, by the informant immediately following the buy and were identified as oxycodone hydrochloride, a Schedule II controlled substance.
The narrative from the investigating officer details two additional purchases made by the same informant from Sullivan. Those purchases were made Jan. 23 and Jan. 24, 2012. An additional purchase was conducted by a second informant, CI-148, on May 17, 2012. That buy was not recorded, but involved two undercover officers from the Northwest Drug Task Force, a combined county, state and federal team. Two Lincoln County sheriff’s investigators also witnessed the transaction.
The complaint, filed by Lincoln County Attorney Bernard Cassidy July 29, 2014, charges Sullivan with criminal distribution of dangerous drugs for those four events, but also includes an additional count of the same charge from an incident of Sept. 23, 2013. The public record available from Lincoln County Justice Court did not include any documentation regarding that count. Justice of the Peace Jay Sheffield signed the complaint two days later and issued a warrant for Sullivan’s arrest.
Nearly a full year after the final incident in the indictment and more than two years after the investigation began, the complaint was filed and the arrest warrant issued.
Lincoln County Sheriff Roby Bowe said drug cases often require that amount of time to bring to fruition. “These cases are complex,” he said. “The detectives put in long hours working with informants. Even the paperwork involved in getting the wire warrants can take hours.”
Once the investigation work is completed, there are a number of other factors that can cause delays in the arrest and prosecution of drug-related cases, although he could not comment on the specifics of Sullivan’s case.
Delays, said Bowe, can come from the strength of the case against the defendant as well as the potential for the defendant to be used as an informant to gather information on more dangerous dealers. He also said delays are sometimes caused by the workload of the state crime lab in Missoula. Although drugs can be preliminarily identified by sight and reference material, the actual pills must be processed at the lab for chemical identification.
Sullivan was arrested at her residence on Feb. 7, more than three years after the investigation began. She is being held on $25,000 bond in the Lincoln County jail. A preliminary hearing in the case is scheduled for March 5.