Accused drug trafficker on the lam

A Butte man charged in Coeur d’Alene with trafficking heroin and methamphetamine is on the lam after being released from jail on his own recognizance.

Daniel E. Palmer was arrested on Interstate 90 in April after Idaho State Police allegedly found five ounces of methamphetamine and almost an ounce of heroin in his gold Toyota Prelude that troopers stopped east of Coeur d’Alene after it reportedly swerved and almost struck a police car in Post Falls.

Palmer, 41, was charged with two counts of trafficking in First District magistrate court, as well as a misdemeanor paraphernalia charge, and for driving without privileges. He was held on an $80,000 bond while waiting for his probable cause hearing.

The preliminary hearing was twice reset since his April 14 arrest, and a judge denied a request for bail reduction. But after Palmer spent a month in the Kootenai County Jail, attorneys recommended releasing Palmer without bond. When he failed to appear for his court date, magistrate Anna Eckhart issued a $80,000 bench warrant last week for his arrest.

Troopers said Palmer was wanted in California on drug charges, and he had two outstanding Montana warrants. He recently visited his ex-wife and three children in Spokane before traveling through Coeur d’Alene on his way back to Butte when troopers pulled him over near the Mullan Trail Road exit.

His passenger, Luke A. Springer, 34, told police that Palmer was injecting heroin as he drove, causing him to veer in the highway, according to troopers. Police found a used syringe and a small bundle of black tar heroin on the car’s floor, according to a police report.

A search of the Toyota uncovered five 28-gram baggies of methamphetamine, and a 25-gram baggie of heroin, along with digital scales, torches, lighters, scissors, knives and spoons with burned ends, according to police.

Troopers said the individually packaged bags of methamphetamine were sealed in plastic wrap, inside two vacuum-sealed bags and wrapped in a bag of red-colored oil used to deter the detection of police drug-sniffing dogs, according to a report.

Trafficking between 28 and 200 grams of methamphetamine carries a mandatory minimum sentence of three years in prison. Trafficking between seven and 28 grams of heroin carries a mandatory minimum fixed prison term of 10 years.

Palmer is still at large. A date for his next hearing has not been set pending his arrest and extradition.