Michael Guzman

Joseph Grant

Tiffany Ringgenberg

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Acting on a tip from an informant, law enforcement officers reportedly caught three people in Thermopolis who were preparing to distribute crystal meth around the Big Horn Basin.

Stashed in their vehicle, a purse and inside one defendant’s underwear, authorities say they found more than 90 grams of methamphetamine in late July. The street value of the relatively large quantity of drugs could have reached $15,000.

All three of those arrested in the July 22 incident have ties to Park County: 36-year-old Michael L. Guzman is a former Powell resident, 29-year-old Joseph Grant says he previously lived in Cody and 39-year-old Tiffany Ringgenberg is a current Cody resident.

Guzman, Grant and Ringgenberg are all facing felony drug charges in Hot Springs County. As of Wednesday, they all remained in jail in Thermopolis as they await further proceedings in their respective cases.

Charging documents allege that Guzman had invited Ringgenberg to join him on “a run” to Greeley, Colorado, where they would pick up meth.

In an affidavit filed in support of the criminal charges, Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation Special Agent Juliet Fish wrote that Guzman “is a known methamphetamine supplier from Gillette” and “is known to travel to the Big Horn Basin with methamphetamine.”

Guzman invited Ringgenberg knowing that she “could help ‘get rid of’ the methamphetamine he was getting in Greeley,” Fish alleges in the affidavit.

Ringgenberg allegedly told DCI agents after her arrest that Guzman had paid a man in Greeley a “large amount of cash” for the drugs on the morning of July 22. She and Guzman picked up Grant in Casper as they made their way back through Wyoming.

Grant told DCI that he met Guzman while the two men were serving time at Wyoming Medium Correctional Institute in Torrington; Guzman’s criminal record includes a two- to four-year prison sentence for playing a supporting role in a 2012 armed robbery in Powell.

After being picked up on July 22, Grant reportedly told DCI that he’d agreed to help drive, as Guzman needed someone with a driver’s license.

“I advised Grant that I knew he was with Guzman delivering methamphetamine to different people and I wanted to know what Grant’s role was,” Fish wrote of her interview with the suspect. “Grant stated that he wanted a lawyer.”

Ringgenberg reportedly told DCI that Guzman was supposed to deliver 3 ounces (85 grams) of the meth to a man in Kaycee; however, those plans had to change when that man was pulled over by law enforcement.

Instead, Guzman delivered an eight-ball of meth (3.5 grams) to a woman in Worland, the charging documents allege, while Ringgenberg offered one of the ounces (28.35 grams) to another person in Thermopolis for $800.

That offer wound up being law enforcement’s big break, as that Thermopolis resident was working as an informant and tipped off DCI.

Agent Fish, in turn, notified the Hot Springs County Sheriff’s Office and Thermopolis PD, who found Guzman’s Dodge Neon parked in an alley, apparently near the informant’s house.

When Thermopolis Police Officer Scott Garner approached the vehicle, he reportedly saw Guzman weighing out meth on a digital scale.

Pieces of what appeared to be crystal meth were scattered across the car’s floorboards, charging documents say, with more of the substance in plastic baggies. An additional 3.45 grams of suspected meth were found in the fly of Grant’s underwear, which, according to charging documents, he told DCI he’d received from a friend in Casper.

“... The approximate weight of the methamphetamine recovered from the vehicle, along with the methamphetamine found in Grant’s underwear, was 91.46 grams,” Fish wrote. The document is unclear as to whether that total includes nearly 6 grams of suspected meth found in Ringgenberg’s purse.

One week earlier, on July 15, Ringgenberg was a passenger in a vehicle pulled over by the Wyoming Highway Patrol. Troopers were told Ringgenberg had provided meth to the other two adults in the vehicle — and that they’d all smoked meth together hours earlier. However, she was not arrested at that time.

Ringgenberg’s bail is now set at $100,000. A couple days after her arrest, she asked a judge to release her on a signature bond, explaining that “would work the best for me so I could go back to Park County to work on getting in to a rehab center.” Judges have not lowered it.

Ringgenberg is set for a Monday arraignment hearing. She, Grant and Guzman each face felony counts of possessing more than 3 grams of meth and conspiring to deliver meth.

Guzman faces an additional count of possessing meth with intent to deliver. His bail is set at $200,000 while awaiting arraignment.

As for Grant, he faces a separate felony charge of property destruction, alleging he dealt more than $1,000 worth of damage after being taken into custody. His bail is set $102,500. Preliminary hearings in his two cases are set for Sept. 23.