Two Powell residents stand charged with felony drug crimes after police intercepted a package containing nearly an ounce of methamphetamine that had been shipped to them.

Richard L. Jones, 38, and Cassandra P. Rodriguez, 24, are each charged with conspiring to deliver, or to possess with intent to deliver, methamphetamine.

Powell police say Jones arranged for a woman in California to ship the meth to Rodriguez’s residence on North Bent Street after Rodriguez made a $1,000 payment. Jones allegedly told police he had an agreement with the California woman that she would front him the drugs and he’d sell them and then pay her back.

Both Jones and Rodriguez pleaded not guilty to the charges against them at a Wednesday morning appearance in Park County’s District Court.

Trials for each were tentatively scheduled for April 16.

While the cases are pending, Jones continues to be held in the Park County Detention Center, with bond set at $20,000, while Rodriguez has been free on a $15,000 signature bond for about a month; she spent a couple weeks in jail after her initial late-October arrest.

Charging documents say the case began Oct. 17 when police received a tip that a shipment of meth would soon be arriving at Rodriguez’s residence on North Bent Street.

The tipster said they’d personally seen Rodriguez and Jones smoking meth and been told that Jones had just wired $1,000 to a woman in California for an ounce more.

Police pulled Jones and another woman over on Oct. 19 and — after a police drug dog alerted to the scent of narcotics — searched their vehicle, Officer Danny Hite wrote in an affidavit used to support the later charges. Police found what appeared to be a meth pipe, a marijuana pipe, a small baggie of meth, a digital scale and a receipt for a $1,000 wire transfer from Rodriguez to the woman in California.

The following day, Officer Hite asked officials at UPS, FedEx and the U.S. Postal Service to be on the lookout for any packages going to Jones’ or Rodriguez’s homes.

On Oct. 24, Hite got a call from the Wyoming postal inspector: A package bound for Rodriguez’s residence and addressed to “The Dude” had arrived at the Powell post office. It had been sent by the same Californian to whom Rodriguez had sent the $1,000.

Officer Reece McLain and his drug detection dog Zeke were again called into action, and Zeke alerted to the scent of narcotics on the package by picking it out of several put in front of him, Hite said.

It was enough to convince Circuit Court Judge Bruce Waters to authorize a search warrant for the package.

Inside, police found roughly 28 grams — approximately equal to one ounce — of meth stuffed inside an ibuprofen bottle and Squirt brand drink packets, all of which were inside a bag of peanut-butter M&M’s, Hite said. Also inside were a pair of apparently new glass pipes.

Working in conjunction with the post office, police then repackaged the shipment — minus the meth — and made it available for delivery the following day, Oct. 25.

Jones picked up the package that morning and was himself picked up by police a few blocks away. Hite said that, in a subsequent interview, Jones said he’d been expecting 21 grams of meth.

“He substantially said (the woman in California) would give him the methamphetamine on loan, and then he would pay her back once it was sold,” Hite said of Jones’ statement “He (owed) her $500 for the last shipment, so he paid her an additional $500.”

Hite said Jones admitted to selling meth in and around the Powell area, having received, at most, four other packages from the woman in California. Hite quoted Jones as saying the other packages had contained smaller amounts, around 3.5 grams each.

Rodriguez, meanwhile, later told Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation agents that she had bought meth from Jones and used it with him multiple times in the prior two months, according to an affidavit from DCI special agent David Ferguson.

Rodriguez allegedly said she’d also watched Jones manufacture meth in a plastic bottle in her garage — using a mixture of cold medicine she’d bought, antifreeze, lye (which is sometimes used in soap making) and lithium batteries; Ferguson recounted the allegations in an affidavit used to support an Oct. 31 search of both Rodriguez’s home on North Bent Street and Jones’ place on North Clark Street.

DCI enlisted the help and protective gear of the Wyoming Office of Homeland Security’s Regional Emergency Response Team for the search, but court records indicate they found only one bottle of rubbing alcohol and one of antifreeze to be of interest.

At the time of her Oct. 27 arrest, Rodriguez reportedly admitted to police she’d been using drugs — she tested positive for marijuana, cocaine and amphetamine — and voluntarily turned over marijuana and associated paraphernalia at her house, Hite wrote.

The small baggie of marijuana she provided to police led to a misdemeanor charge of possessing a controlled substance. She pleaded not guilty to that charge as well at Wednesday’s arraignment.

Editor's note: This version corrects the name of the Wyoming Office of Homeland Security.