CANADIAN COUNTY, OK- Law enforcement authorities in Oklahoma are investigating a Kansas couple on drug charges.
Deputies jailed David Jean Tucker, 59, Haysville, Kansas and Cynthia Ann Belcher, 63, Wichita, Kansas January 3, after Canadian County Sheriff’s Deputies found more than 30 pounds of methamphetamines hidden inside the rental car they were driving, according to a media release.
The pair was stopped on Interstate 40 eastbound near the 123-mile marker after the driver changed lanes without signaling, and then veered off the road, onto the outside shoulder.
According to deputies, the pair had rented the 2016 Toyota Camry they were traveling in three days prior in Wichita, and had traveled to Phoenix, Arizona. According to their statements to deputies, that’s where they picked up the large load of meth. Both Tucker and Belcher confessed they were recruited to be drug smugglers while receiving services at a faith based mission in Wichita, Kansas and were in the process of making their second trip.
“It’s mindboggling to learn this pair was recruited by the drug cartel over a free meal at a local church in Wichita, Kansas. I guess the cartel will stoop to any level to lure people to haul drugs for them,” said Chris West, Canadian County Sheriff.
Deputies knew something wasn’t right when they clearly observed the two talking before the stop, and then the female played possum (acting as if she was asleep) when they walked up to the vehicle. The driver, identified as David Tucker, told authorities he had rented the vehicle to take Belcher to the Cancer Centers of America, located inside the Veteran’s Hospital in Amarillo, Texas. A quick check by deputies resulted in there not being any such facility at the VA center.
Deputies determined both Tucker and Belcher possessed lengthy criminal histories, with Belcher’s being drug related. Deputies believed the pair to be involved in criminal activity, and a free-air sniff of the space around the rental vehicle was conducted using drug detector canine Pickles. The free air-sniff resulted in a positive alert to the presence of illegal narcotics.
Once inside the vehicle, deputies located thirty-one packages of methamphetamines inside natural voids of the Toyota Camry; inside the doors and trunk of the vehicle. Both subjects were taken into custody, and transported to the Canadian County Jail where they were booked in. Both Tucker and Belcher were booked on charges of Aggravated Trafficking of Methamphetamines After a Former Conviction of a Felony. Their bond was established at two hundred thousand dollars, and they both remain in custody.
“I’m very happy we were able to intercept this load, keeping it out of the hands of the cartel, and those whose lives it ruining,” West said.
The Sheriff’s Office estimates the street value of the drugs to be over two hundred thousand dollars.