When authorities arrested a Cody man in June on suspicion of dealing meth, they seized his truck, his SUV and his pistol. The State of Wyoming now says it should be allowed to keep the items, which are believed to be worth around $23,400.

In a civil forfeiture complaint filed last month, the Wyoming Attorney General’s Office contends that Daniel R. Feketi, 52, was using his two vehicles and the gun to deliver or receive controlled substances. The attorney general is asking a judge to turn Feketi’s property over to the state.

Agents with the Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation raided Feketi’s home in the Green Acres Mobile Home Park on June 22 and found a pound of meth inside, charging documents say. Feketi was allegedly caught selling 1 ounce of meth to another Cody resident for either $400 or $450, and the total street value of the drugs seized from his residence could have reached into the tens of thousands of dollars.

Feketi was arrested and charged with a felony count of possessing a controlled substance with intent to deliver. Many of the details of the case were kept under wraps at the time, with an affidavit referring only to a joint drug investigation with agents in Montana. Even in mid-August, when authorities charged the man who allegedly bought the ounce of meth from Feketi, the charging documents avoided naming Feketi as the seller. Last month’s forfeiture complaint from Senior Assistant Attorney General Kellsie Singleton, however, includes additional details about the investigation.

For example, the complaint says DCI agents were surveilling Feketi’s Rocky Road residence on June 22 and believed the meth arrived inside a UPS package earlier that day.

A subsequent search of Feketi’s residence, his 2004 Dodge Durango and his 2019 Dodge Ram pickup turned up apparent meth, psilocybin mushrooms, a large scale, an apparent meth grinder, and a Taurus G2 pistol, according to the complaint.

The document ties the gun to the allegations, saying several rocks of apparent meth were found in a pistol case. Additionally, Feketi is alleged to have let another person transport meth in his Durango and to have personally used his Ram to pick up meth in San Francisco in February 2022 and to deliver meth in Cody earlier this year.

Singleton is asking presiding Park County District Court Judge Bill Simpson to order the forfeiture of the two vehicles and the gun to the state, valuing the Ram at roughly $20,000, the Durango at $3,000 and the Taurus pistol at $400.

To acquire the items, the state will need to prove by “clear and convincing evidence” that the vehicles and gun were used (or intended to be used) to facilitate drug crimes, or that they represented the proceeds of drug crimes.

Feketi will have an opportunity to contest the forfeiture, but records indicate he has yet to be served with a copy of the Oct. 2 civil complaint. As for his pending criminal case, Feketi remains free on a $75,000 surety bond as he awaits a Dec. 11 trial. He has pleaded not guilty.

Meanwhile, the man who allegedly purchased the meth from Feketi in June, Clinton James Bassett, is facing a felony count of possessing more than 3 grams of meth. Bassett, who turns 44 this year, is free on a $5,000 surety bond and awaiting a Nov. 28 preliminary hearing.

To secure convictions in the criminal cases, the Park County Attorney’s Office will need to prove the allegations beyond a reasonable doubt — a higher burden of proof than the state faces in the forfeiture action.

At Feketi’s initial court appearance in June, Deputy Park County Attorney Jack Hatfield alluded to the arrest being part of a broader and ongoing investigation, saying the pound of meth seized from the Cody residence “pales in comparison to the exceedingly large quantities of methamphetamine that’s involved in this case.”