In brief: Feds join probe of Idaho mansion fire

The federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives is joining the investigation of last week’s fire that gutted a million-dollar mansion overlooking the Spokane River at Post Falls.

“A fire that size taxes a department the size of ours,” said Dan Ryan, a spokesman for Kootenai County Fire and Rescue.

Last week, investigators searched the scene with an accelerant-sniffing dog, which drew investigators’ attention to a couple areas of the home, owned by Leonard and Pamela Wallace. The home, which was destroyed by flames Thursday, had been the subject of a pending foreclosure.

“The dog did have a couple hits. We took some samples and sent them to the lab. But the dogs work off petroleum smells. We have petroleum products all around our houses,” Ryan said.

The Wallaces’ insurance company hired a security agency to secure the home over this past weekend until investigators begin anew today, Ryan said.

Thomas Clouse

2 arrested after stop on I-90 yields cocaine

A traffic stop on Interstate 90 near Ritzville yielded nearly 2  1/2 pounds of packaged cocaine and led to the arrest of two men recently, authorities said.

Marshall Jay Devore, 31, and Rudolph Salvador Pyne, 32, are facing federal drug charges in U.S. District Court in Spokane after a state trooper stopped a 2003 Jeep Cherokee alleging it was going 84 mph in the 70 mph zone near milepost 221 about 11 p.m. Feb. 11, according to documents filed Friday in U.S. District Court in Spokane.

Devore, the driver, had a misdemeanor warrant for driving while suspended. Pyne, his passenger, also had a suspended license, so troopers impounded the Jeep, which was registered to a woman in the 2400 block of East Rowan Avenue in Spokane. 

While doing an “inventory” on the Jeep, troopers found a duffel bag open with what appeared to be a brick of packaged drugs visible, authorities said.

Detectives located packages of cocaine that weighed 1,079 grams, according to court documents.

Pyne has a previous federal felony conviction for bank robbery in California. He told investigators that nothing in the Jeep belonged to him. Agents with the Drug Enforcement Administration filed papers Friday seeking to charge the men with possession of cocaine with intent to distribute.

Meghann M. Cuniff