Canine assists agents with drug bust

Two Bartlesville residents were jailed last week after a police canine sniffed out 60 pounds of suspected methamphetamine during a traffic stop, according to a court affidavit.

Driver Jamie Lynette Starr ,27, and passenger James Brian Berry, 34, were arrested Wednesday on complaints of aggravated trafficking of me th amphetamine and possession of a fire arm after a felony conviction. They were booked into the Oklahoma County j ail where they remained i n custody Monday. Bail was set for each at $57,500, records show.

Starr and Berry were traveling north in a silver Acura on Interstate 35 near Hefner Road about 9:30 p.m. when they were stopped by agents with t he Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics for “unsafely” changing lanes.

“During the course of the stop, I observed several criminal indicators while speaking to Starr,” one of the agents reported in the affidavit.

Another agent deployed a canine named Ruff certified in narcotics detection. Ruff alerted the officer to the odor of illegal narcotics coming from Berry's car, the agent reported.

Asked about the canine alert, Berry said he had smoked marijuana in the vehicle earlier in the day, but could not produce a medical marijuana card, the agent reported.

During a probable cause search of Berry' s vehicle, approximately 60 pounds of suspected methamphetamine and a Ruger AR-556 rifle were found in a blender box in the trunk of the vehicle, the agent reported. Agents also found a Ruger 9mm handgun on the car's front floorboard, they reported.