{"id":110595,"date":"2015-07-30T19:55:29","date_gmt":"2015-07-31T01:55:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/drug-trafficker-gets-10-year-term\/"},"modified":"2015-07-30T19:55:29","modified_gmt":"2015-07-31T01:55:29","slug":"drug-trafficker-gets-10-year-term","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/drug-trafficker-gets-10-year-term\/","title":{"rendered":"Drug trafficker gets 10-year term"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Davis\"
Davis<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

It required three search warrants, but Cortez police ultimately found almost 3 pounds of methamphetamine hidden in the trunk of a BMW.<\/p>\n

The driver of the car, Joseph Davis, 35, is now serving a 10-year prison sentence after pleading guilty to drug distribution charges earlier this month.<\/p>\n

According to police, the bust came Davis was stopped about 10 p.m. Feb. 9 on East Main Street with a broken tail light. He was unable to provide a valid license or proof of registration and was arrested and charged with three misdemeanor traffic violations.<\/p>\n

The next day, police conducted their first search of the vehicle and found a digital scale, a meth pipe and a fake one-liter soda bottle with a hidden compartment. A K-9 unit also alerted on the vehicle, but no narcotics were found.<\/p>\n

That same day, detectives became suspicious after a woman claiming to be Davis\u2019 wife arrived at the police station demanding the vehicle. A falsified bill of sale, complete with a notary signature from a deceased individual, was submitted, which led authorities to secure another search warrant.<\/p>\n

Despite another alert by a different K-9 unit, authorities again came up empty-handed for narcotics when conducting a second search of the vehicle on Feb. 26.<\/p>\n

More than a month passed before agents with the 7th Judicial District Drug Task Force notified local authorities on April 2 that 4 pounds of methamphetamine might be hidden inside the 1997 BMW. Agents said an informant provided the information based on jailhouse conversations with Davis.<\/p>\n

On April 6, a third and final search was conducted, and 2.8 pounds of methamphetamine were discovered. The illegal narcotics were contained inside two 4-by-12-inch bundles that were wrapped in black electrical tape. The bales were embedded deep inside the trunk under a layer of spray foam. Firefighters were called in to remove the contraband with a metal cutter.<\/p>\n

Davis, a reputed trafficker, reportedly was shot two years ago during a drug deal in Grand Junction. He pleaded guilty to distribution charges at an arraignment hearing on July 23. Davis has requested a direct sentence.<\/p>\n

District Court Judge Todd Plewe subsequently ordered Davis to 10 years in prison with credit for time served followed by three years of parole. The BMW and about $800 in cash seized after the traffic stop were forfeited to authorities.<\/p>\n

According to District Attorney Will Furse, Davis\u2019 criminal history dates to 1998, and includes drug, weapon, theft, fraud and eluding convictions.<\/p>\n

tbaker@cortezjournal.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

conducted three search warrants before cracking the case<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":110596,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5736,5735],"tags":[21,969,533],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-110595","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","category-news","tag-cortez","tag-drug-trafficking","tag-prison"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110595","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=110595"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110595\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/110596"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=110595"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=110595"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=110595"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=110595"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}