A traffic stop by Hot Springs police late Saturday resulted in the arrests of a local man and woman on multiple felony charges after drugs and counterfeit money were reportedly found.
Matthew Eric Moore, 33, who lists a Grimmitt Loop address, and Amy Nichole Tucker, 37, who lists a Hamilton Dairy Road address, were both charged with possession of meth with purpose to deliver, unauthorized use of another person's property to facilitate a crime and possession of drug paraphernalia, each punishable by up to 20 years in prison, and second-degree forgery, punishable by up to 10 years.
They were each being held in lieu of $10,000 bond and were set to appear Monday in Garland County District Court.
According to the probable cause affidavit, around 11:45 p.m. Saturday, Officers Justin Bradbury and Chris Schreck were on stationary patrol within the boundaries of Hot Springs National Park when Officer Mark Spain, who was northbound on Gorge Road, observed a silver sedan driving off the roadway and then heading south toward East Grand Avenue.
Spain alerted Bradbury the sedan should be passing him momentarily and Bradbury states he got behind a silver Toyota Camry after it passed him. A check of the license plate showed it returned to a different vehicle so he stopped it in the 1000 block of East Grand.
He made contact with the driver, identified as Moore, who stated he didn't have a driver's license or proof of insurance and that the car belonged to his girlfriend, identified as Tucker, who was the front seat passenger. Tucker was reportedly unable to provide any documentation or proof of ownership for the car so it was decided to impound it since it had fictitious tags and was found to be registered to someone else.
While Spain was telling Tucker to exit the passenger seat, Schreck allegedly saw her attempting to hide syringes between the seat and center console. During an inventory of the vehicle prior to towing, officers located a black box with two different padlocks. During a search of Moore, two keys were found on his belt loop which opened the locks.
Inside the box, officers reportedly found syringes, containers with marijuana residue, baggies with meth residue, a baggie with 6 grams of what later tested positive for meth, 4 grams of marijuana, electronic scales and five counterfeit $100 bills. One of the two syringes shoved between the seats was found to contain a bloody liquid.
At that point, an agent with the 18th Judicial District East Drug Task Force was notified and responded to assume the investigation.
Local on 10/01/2019