Amtrak passenger faces pot charges

Charges say law enforcement found more than two pounds of marijuana, almost two ounces of hashish and more than four pounds of pot-infused chocolate on an Amtrak passenger arrested in Havre.

Andrew J. Miller of Marsha, Oregon, born in 1990, pleaded not guilty in state District Court in Havre to felony charges of possession of dangerous drugs with intent to distribute and carrying dangerous drugs on a train.

State District Judge Dan Boucher set an omnibus hearing, which usually includes setting a trial date, for June 2.

Miller was in the Hill County jail this morning, being held on $20,000 bond.

According to a court document, about 9:30 a.m. April 25 a Hill County Sheriff’s dispatcher relayed to a drug task force agent a message from Amtrak police agents. The Amtrak agents said they had detained a man on the eastbound Empire Builder.

A task force agent and two Havre police officers met the Amtrak agents at the Havre station and arrested Miller after talking to the Amtrak officers.

The Amtrak agents said they boarded the train in Shelby to interview Miller after a conductor reported that, at a previous stop, he had been drinking and vomited in the boarding area, then became rude with the conductor about his taking two bottles of water.

The Amtrak agents said Miller told them he had been arrested before on drug charges and said he had some “personal use” marijuana on him, the document says.

Miller consented to the agents searching his bags and in a briefcase they found a pillowcase with sealed plastic bags containing marijuana inside it and also “a suspicious bag of chocolates,” the document says.

The task force agent later field tested the substance in one package and weighed the suspicious items. He found about two pounds, six ounces of marijuana in five packages and 1.74 ounces of hashish in a plastic condiment container and in a paper wrapping, and about four pounds, 13 ounces, of chocolate in which the agent saw what appeared to be “green and/or seed material” inside when he broke apart one piece.