Six arrested after drug-dealing probe
A half dozen suspected drug dealers, two of whom allegedly hid their methamphetamine in cheese ball cans, have been arrested in connection with a monthlong investigation into narcotics trafficking in the Newport and Loon Lake areas.
Pend Oreille County Sheriff’s Detective Questin Youk said Friday’s arrests capped a two-county bust that began with an anonymous letter to Pend Oreille County officers. He said the letter alerted investigators to a link between a suspected Newport drug dealer and a Loon Lake family in Stevens County. Newport police and a state trooper assisted in the probe.
“Our person was going down there (to Loon Lake) quite a bit,” Youk said. “She was going there once or twice a week.”
He referred to Angela M. Hauseur, 36, who was arrested at her Newport home Friday on suspicion that she possessed methamphetamine with intent to deliver, and that she also possessed morphine, Oxycodone and Hydrocodone.
Also arrested at Hauseur’s home was Scott A. Shumake, 34, who was booked into jail on suspicion of possessing methamphetamine with intent to deliver. Hauseur was released at the scene because of injuries she had suffered in a recent motorcycle accident, Youk said.
He said officers seized 9.2 grams of crystal methamphetamine believed to have been manufactured in the Tri-Cities or Yakima.
Some of the drug, worth about $600, was hidden in false-bottomed cheese ball cans, Youk said.
Shumake had been living at Hauseur’s home about two weeks. She said Shumake had been her caregiver since she was injured, Youk said.
The detective said Stevens County sheriff’s officers arrested four other people Thursday who allegedly had been supplying Hauseur. He said they were three women, all members of the same family, and a boyfriend of one of the women.
Several vehicles and a substantial amount of cash were seized in the Loon Lake raid, but names and other details of the Stevens County raid weren’t available.
Most methamphetamine busts in Pend Oreille County involve only a gram or so, Youk said. The amount seized Friday was enough to keep a user high for more than a week, he said.