The Cortez Police Department arrested a local man Wednesday morning as part of its investigation of a drug trafficking organization.
Maynard Wayne Peltier, 68, is being held at the Montezuma County Detention Center on a no-bond drug felony warrant from Montezuma County and a $1 million bond warrant from Mesa County.
Several pounds of meth were seized during the yearlong investigation.
Lt. Andy Brock of the Cortez Police Department said that a pound of meth is worth about $20,000 in street value, but that value could easily increase to $40,000 if the meth is sold by the gram.
“He was supplying significant quantities of meth to the community,” Cortez Police Chief Vern Knuckles told The Journal.
Peltier also is suspected of trafficking several pounds of meth to Grand Junction.
Knuckles said law enforcement agencies hoped Peltier’s arrest would decrease the supply of illicit narcotics in the area.
Investigators from the Montezuma-Cortez Narcotics Team, the Cortez Police Department and the Montezuma County Sheriff’s Office executed a search warrant Wednesday morning on Peltier’s residence in Cortez when they received information that Peltier was hiding at another residence on Coronado Avenue, Knuckles said.
Police executed the search warrant on the second residence, and Peltier “tried slipping out the back door, but police made the arrest,” Knuckles said.
Police seized three handguns suspected to be stolen, an additional 12 grams of meth – worth about $300 in street value – and over $4,000 in suspected proceeds from drug sales.
After the arrest, Cortez police found that Peltier had packed up his residence and had made plans to leave Cortez on Thursday, Knuckles said.
Peltier has previous drug convictions, including distribution of illicit drugs. In 2015, he was sentenced in Cortez to prison in a possession and distribution case, and he previously served prison time in the 1990s.
The Montezuma-Cortez Narcotics Team, along with the Western Colorado Drug Task Force out of Grand Junction, is also investigating several individuals who allegedly sold illegal narcotics provided by Peltier.
ehayes@the-journal.com