Who's a good girl?

SMELTERVILLE — A Shoshone County man, accused of dealing methamphetamine and heroin, is now in police custody following a taffic stop in late April.

The Shoshone County Sheriff’s Office reported that on April 21, an SCSO deputy was conducting a routine patrol in the city of Smelterville when they observed a silver Toyota Camry commit a moving violation and initiated a traffic stop.

After making initial contact with the occupants of the vehicle, the deputy requested the use of SCSO’s drug detection K-9, deputy Lulu.

Lulu and her handler, deputy Ben Abshire, responded to the scene and proceeded to conduct a free air sniff around the vehicle. The free air sniff concluded with Lulu alerting to the vehicle, indicating the presence of illegal substances. Deputies then initiated a search of the vehicle and as the investigation progressed, a backpack believed to be containing narcotics was seized along with drug paraphernalia.

The driver of the Camry, Andrea Mairah Romo, 26, of Kellogg, was cited and released for drug paraphernalia. The passenger, Michael Dean Essman, 53, transient of Shoshone County, was released without charges.

Eight days later, SCSO Undersheriff Holly Lindsey explained that a search warrant was executed on the seized backpack and it was found to contain a “white crystalline substance suspected to be methamphetamine and a brown/tar-like substance suspected to be heroin.”

Approximate amounts of the substances are unknown at this time pending laboratory analysis.

On May 7, deputies located and arrested Essman and charged him with possession with intent to deliver methamphetamine (felony), possession of heroin (felony) and possession of drug paraphernalia (misdemeanor).

According to iCourt, Essman has a criminal record in Shoshone County which includes numerous vehicle violations and serving 2-4 years in prison for possession of a controlled substance charges in 2009.

While Sheriff Mike Gunderson was pleased with the follow-through of the investigation conducted by the deputies, the arrest of Essman is just another example of someone re-offending.

“Unfortunately, we routinely deal with the same individuals numerous times,” he said.