September 13, 2018
By Paragon News Director Paul Joseph –
A New Mexico man is in the Beckham County Detention Center on a $100-thousand dollar bond for trafficking Fentanyl through the Western Oklahoma area.
27-year-old Michael Evander Moore of Albuquerque was recently arrested while traveling on Interstate 40 following a routine traffic stop.
According to the report, Moore was a passenger in a vehicle traveling east along the interstate about 76 miles an hour just before 3 am.
A Beckham County Deputy initiated a traffic stop and pulled the vehicle over about four miles east of Erick after observing one of the vehicle’s tag lights was burned out.
The deputy questioned the driver, a female, and the male passenger, individually. She displayed nervousness and a failure to make eye contact with the deputy while sweating though remarking she was cold.
After their stories contradicted each other, he conducted a search of the 4-door Nissan.
Allegedly found in what appeared to be a marijuana container was a large amount of a white powdery substance that later field tested positive for Fentanyl weighing about 46 grams.
The deputy also allegedly found scales covered in a green leafy substance along with a white powdery substance.
Beckham County Sheriff Derek Manning says his deputies concentrate on county law enforcement, but if the occasion presents itself, they will pull over a vehicle found speeding on the interstate.
According to online information, Fentanyl is approximately 100 times more potent than morphine and 50 times more potent than heroin as an analgesic. The information also says that a kilogram of Fentanyl, if purchased for approximately $6,000, could be sold for approximately $1.6 million. That would make the 46 grams that was allegedly confiscated by the deputy to be worth approximately $74-thousand dollars.
Manning says the handling of opioids like Fentanyl should be handled cautiously.
The female driver was released from the scene, but Moore was arrested and charged with unlawful possession of a controlled drug with intent to distribute.
He has due in district court on November 6 for a preliminary hearing.
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