Federal prosecutors have taken over the case against two Cody residents caught with tens of thousands of dollars worth of methamphetamine earlier this year.

Phillip Dobbins, 43, and Natosha Martin, 37, now face felony charges in Wyoming’s U.S. District Court of conspiring to deliver meth.

On Tuesday, Martin agreed to remain in custody for the time being, but, over the objections of the prosecution, U.S. Magistrate Judge Michael Shickich of Casper allowed Dobbins to be released from jail to attend a treatment facility.

Dobbins and Martin have not yet entered a plea to the charges in federal court, but had previously pleaded not guilty to the allegations in state court.

Authorities claim the pair purchased 354 grams of meth — or roughly 12.5 ounces — in Aurora, Colorado, in the latter part of March. Martin told agents with the Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation that she’d given Dobbins $3,000 to buy the drugs.

Martin reportedly explained Dobbins “told her that he would sell it so that Martin could make enough money to move from her existing residence,” Postal Inspector Richard Fergon of Denver wrote in a sworn statement.

In a so-called proffer interview with DCI agents conducted weeks after her arrest, Martin said it was the third time she’d accompanied Dobbins on such a trip. When they got back to Cody, Dobbins “would separate the methamphetamine into smaller quantity baggies, then disappear and ‘do his thing,’” Inspector Fergon wrote of Martin’s account.

The sworn statement indicates Martin also admitted to making her own sales: It quotes her as saying that, when she was contacted by prospective buyers, she would ask Dobbins for meth to sell.

The drugs purchased in Colorado wound up being seized by DCI agents after Cody police stopped Dobbins and arrested him March 23 for impaired driving. Court records say

Dobbins had been on the agency’s radar for months, as he allegedly sold meth and prescription painkillers to a DCI informant and an undercover agent on five separate occasions in January and February. The transactions took place in Cody, Powell and a spot outside Shoshoni, where Dobbins allegedly sold the undercover agent 3.7 grams of meth. The suspect had no idea it was a sting — at one point warning that agent to “watch out in Shoshoni for the cops, because they drive a white unmarked vehicle,” Special Agent Juliet Fish recounted in an affidavit.

Police used a standard patrol car to nab Dobbins on March 23, pulling him over and arresting him after he drifted across the shoulder line and failed sobriety tests in Cody.

Inside Dobbins’s 2002 Cadillac DeVille, Cody officers found marijuana, syringes and an apparent meth pipe, and DCI agents later located a plastic bag containing the 12.5 ounces of apparent meth; the drugs appeared to have been stashed in a loose panel, Fish said.

The Park County Attorney’s Office initially handled the allegations. Prosecutors charged Dobbins in state court with five felony counts of delivering a controlled substance, a felony count of possessing a controlled substance with intent to deliver, two felony counts of possessing a controlled substance for a third or subsequent time and a misdemeanor count of driving under the influence of a controlled substance; Martin, meanwhile, faced felony counts of possessing meth with intent to deliver and two counts of possessing a controlled substance for a third or subsequent time.

However, Park County prosecutors dropped their cases on June 22 to allow the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Wyoming to take over.

Before being transferred to federal custody, Martin’s bail was set at $15,000 while Dobbins would have had to post $200,000 to go free. Federal prosecutors wanted to keep Dobbins in jail, court records show, citing a serious risk of flight, a serious risk of obstruction of justice and arguing no condition would reasonably assure his appearance in court. At Tuesday’s hearing, Assistant U.S. Attorney Timothy Forwood “argued strenuously for detention,” a spokesman for the office said.

However, Judge Shickich was persuaded to release Dobbins on an unsecured bond so he can enter a treatment program in Sheridan. According to the conditions of his release, Dobbins must go straight to Life House and “shall successfully complete treatment and not discontinue treatment.”

When Dobbins leaves the Life House program, Shickich will hold another hearing to determine whether he should be released on bond or returned to federal custody.

No further court dates have been set.