Local drug dealer to be sentenced Monday

Admitted drug dealer Kenneth S. Gardipee, who was arrested August 2012 after he was pulled over while driving a car that was lined with illegal drugs and paraphernalia front to back, is scheduled to be sentenced Monday at 2:30 p.m. in state District Court.

Court charging documents say that Gardipee was pulled over after a Tri-Agency Safe Trails Task Force agent recognized the car as belonging to a woman with a $50,000 felony warrant. The agent called the Havre Police Department, and an officer pulled over the car. That’s when Gardipee was found behind the wheel.

The officer found the woman for whom the warrant was written hiding in the trunk of the car, after Gardipee had told him that she was not in the car. The woman was arrested and so was Gardipee, after it was discovered that his driver’s license was suspended.

Law enforcement intelligence reports indicated that Gardipee and the woman were involved in methamphetamine distribution, which prompted a thorough search of the vehicle two days later. A drug dog helped with the search.

The car was found to be have various drugs, paraphernalia, weapons and distribution baggies in various hiding spots.

The hidden inventory included a cigarette box filled with cocaine in the driver’s door, two scales in the glove box, three cell phones later determined as having been used for making drug deals, a glass pipe in the back seat; many small bags with meth under the center console coin holder, $900 in cash and a glass pipe in the passenger front door; two police batons, a stun gun flashlight, an energy drink can with a false bottom and sandwich bags in the trunk area, and more meth and cocaine under the hood of the car.

A total of 86 hydrocodone, clonazepam, methadone, and oxycodone pills of various doses were found. The total amount of cocaine found was 30.4 grams. The sum of meth found was 34.2 grams. Officer also found a shotgun and a pistol. The pistol was later confirmed by a Rocky Boy criminal investigator as stolen.

Gardipee pleaded guilty Mar. 28 to three counts of criminal possession with intent to distribute. He posted a reduced bail April 21 and was released to live with his mother in Box Elder.