Area man arrested on trafficking charge

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SANDPOINT — A man found with nearly a pound-and-a-half of methamphetamine in Oldtown is in Bonner County Jail on a trafficking charge.

Michael David Stone, 45, is being held on $500,000 bail awaiting preliminary hearing on May 18.

On Wednesday, Stone was pulled over by Idaho State Police Trooper Jonathan Cushman for having no rear license plate on the tow trailer and for having too dark of a window tinting on his vehicle.

Shortly after the stop, U.S. Border Patrol Agent Seth Sedano arrived on scene to provide backup and deployed his K9 unit to search for narcotics.

Upon positive signal by the K9 unit, Stone and a passenger were asked to step out of the 2021 GMC Sierra pickup truck while law enforcement carried out a search. A glass pipe fell to the ground when the two men got out of the truck.

Officers discovered a large baggie containing 665 grams of crystal methamphetamine — approximately 1.4 pounds.

Stone admitted that the narcotics belonged to him, and that he had recently purchased them in the Tri-Cities, Washington, area.

In addition to the trafficking charge, Stone was also booked on paraphernalia and persistent violation charges.

This is Stone’s only court case in the state of Idaho, according to the state’s iCourt database.

Idaho law indicates a mandatory minimum sentence of 15 years incarceration and a $25,000 fine due to the amount of meth found.