Judge orders prison for heroin trafficker

COEUR d’ALENE — A 28-year-old Post Falls woman who had seven grams of heroin hidden in her vagina when she was arrested by police, will go to prison for dealing drugs a 1st District judge ordered Wednesday in Coeur d’Alene.

Tiffany Meador was sentenced to between two and six years in prison for two counts of possession of a controlled substance with intent to deliver.

District Judge Lansing Haynes refused to accept a plea bargain and despite having an opportunity to withdraw her guilty plea, Meador chose to be sentenced on the charges.

“I have had enough time to talk with my lawyer,” Meador said. “I understand I have the option to withdraw my plea and go to trial.”

Meador and co-defendant Dustin McArthur, 31, were accused of traveling to the Washington coast to buy heroin, and returning to Coeur d’Alene to sell the drug at a profit.

The couple sold heroin to police informants as late as February before the couple was arrested in March during a traffic stop. The couple allegedly sold less than two grams to an informant at the Fred Meyer parking lot, and made arrangements to sell the informant more heroin in the future.

A week later, police stopped the couple’s 2002 black Chevy Malibu and, after a K9 alerted on the car, officers searched the Malibu finding less than a gram of heroin in a red purse and syringes inside the car and trunk. Police said Meador admitted to hiding seven grams of heroin in her vagina.

McArthur was sentenced to a minimum of four years and a maximum of seven years for one count of delivering heroin.

Meador’s attorney, Lisa Chesebro, asked the court to retain jurisdiction until Meador had a chance at drug rehabilitation and probation, and deputy prosecutor Stan Mortenson also recommended a rider, which would have given Meador a chance at probation within a year.

“She was a mule in this case,” Mortenson said.

Haynes however brushed aside both recommendations, parsing the charges to a common denominator.

“This is a straightforward drug-dealing case,” Haynes said. “This is not a casual delivery of a controlled substance. You were in business, you were driving to Seattle and buying heroin wholesale and selling it in Idaho at retail.

“There have been a lot of deaths lately because of heroin.”

After sentencing, Haynes told the defendant to take advantage of the prison programs for addicts.

“You will receive in-custody classes and treatment,” he said.