Tucker Wirfel

Just weeks before he was set to be sentenced on a federal drug charge, authorities say a Cody man played a role in a drug sale.

Tucker Wirfel, who’d been free on bond since May, has been ordered to stay in federal custody as he awaits further proceedings.

In late summer, Wirfel pleaded guilty in Wyoming’s U.S. District Court to a felony count of possessing fentanyl with intent to distribute; the allegations date back to late last year. Charging documents quote the 36-year-old as saying that he’d received as many as 1,000 fentanyl pills in the mail and “might have sold some to people in the Cody, WY area.”

Rather than immediately arrest him, court records indicate that Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation agents began using Wirfel as a confidential informant and had him buy meth from Cody resident Kelly Brainerd. However, on Feb. 9, agents say they discovered that Wirfel had actually supplied one of Brainerd’s associates with a large quantity of meth. Wirfel was arrested by Cody police on his way back from the alleged drug run and on Feb. 27, federal prosecutors charged him with the fentanyl possession allegations from late 2022.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Michael Shickich of Casper initially detained Wirfel, but allowed him to attend a residential substance abuse treatment program in early May. Wirfel was then released on his own recognizance after graduating from the program in mid-August. In early September, Wirfel said he had enrolled in a pair of outpatient treatment programs.

However, federal authorities moved to rearrest him this month.

Wirfel’s pretrial service officer, Eddie Lobatos, wrote that on Nov. 4, Wirfel “participated in the sale of controlled substances, specifically methamphetamine and fentanyl pills.” The officer’s petition for arrest says the allegations constitute a felony crime of “possession with intent to distribute” under Wyoming law, but it contains no other details.

DCI agents arrested Wirfel last week and on Friday, Judge Shickich ordered him to remain in custody until a Nov. 27 sentencing hearing in Casper.

Wirfel’s co-defendant in the federal case, 28-year-old Jonathan Castillo, has already received a seven-and-a-half year prison sentence for a felony count of aiding and abetting the distribution of fentanyl in January. The details underlying the allegations are unclear, as, even after his sentencing, the complaint against Castillo remains under seal.

At the time, Castillo was still finishing up a state prison sentence for helping bring a pound of meth from California to Rock Springs in 2018.

Wirfel met Castillo while serving his own prison sentence for burglary and he told authorities that he believed Castillo had ties to a Mexican cartel. Wirfel reportedly told authorities that, after he was released from custody, Castillo tried to get him to sell drugs — including arranging for him to receive a teddy bear filled with fentanyl pills in November 2022. Around that same time, DCI agents received information that Wirfel was distributing drugs and they reportedly caught him with 124 fentanyl pills, steroids and drug paraphernalia in late December in Cody.

Meanwhile, the two Cody men that Wirfel is alleged to have conspired with in February — Brainerd and Shane Scheid, 41 — have pleaded not guilty and are awaiting trial in Park County District Court. Brainerd has been free on bond since the spring, while Scheid remains in custody.

Wirfel also has a pending case in Park County District Court in connection with the alleged February meth deal, as local prosecutors have charged him with conspiracy to deliver a controlled substance and delivery of a controlled substance.

(Editor's note: This version corrects the date of Wirfel's sentencing hearing in Casper.)