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Meth and Counterfeit Bust in Gooding County

Posted on: Tuesday, 28 March 2006, 12:00 CST

By Cassidy Friedman, The Times-News, Twin Falls, Idaho,

Mar. 28--GOODING -- Two men charged with trafficking methamphetamines have negotiated to have their charges reduced to simple possession.

A third man arrested at the same residence faces life in prison on separate charges.

Responding March 15 to a call of illegal squatting south of Wendell, two detectives and a deputy turned up much more.

"A guy on the front step had counterfeit money he was trying to burn. Upon contact with the individuals, one brandished a firearm," said Narcotics Detective Derek Walker of the Gooding County Sheriff's Office.

Walker said Destry Lee Lacombe, 28, was incinerating counterfeits with a butane torch. Multiple bills repeated the same serial number. Lacombe was charged with possession of a forged check, possession of a controlled substance and destruction of evidence. All are felonies. His preliminary hearing has been pushed back to April 20.

Through the open front door, Walker spotted methamphetamine paraphernalia in the living room. Entering the house, "I could smell a strong odor of ammonia from the back of the residence," he said. He traced the odor to the back bedroom and found ingredients for making methamphetamines.

A state detective confirmed it was a methamphetamine lab. Evidence appears to show that several batches of the drug had been attempted and failed. But "it was 20 minutes away" from becoming one, Walker said.

Julio Ceasar Suarez-Valdivia, 25, and Alejandro Ramero-Lopez, 27, were charged with drug trafficking by attempting to manufacture.

In separate hearings Monday, both waived the right to a preliminary hearing after the prosecutor offered them identical deals.

Paul Kroeger, appointed by the court to defend Suarez-Valdivia, said the prosecutor offered to amend the charge against his client from trafficking by attempt to manufacture, which carries a sentence ranging from two to 15 years, to possession, which would reduce the possible sentencing to a maximum of seven years.

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Copyright (c) 2006, The Times-News, Twin Falls, Idaho,

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Source: The Times-News

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