Local charges dropped in heroin bust

April 2, 2012

Hector Rivera Barbara Willoughby At the request of the Boundary County prosecutors office, local drug trafficking charges stemming from a Sunday morning traffic stop on U.S. 95 at Alderson Lane during which the biggest heroin bust in Idaho history went down have been dismissed. Federal indictments were instead leveled against Hector Rivera, 34, and Barbara Willoughby, 22, who were stopped by Bonners Ferry Police Officer Willie Cowell at about 7 a.m. March 18 in a rented truck out of Los Angeles, California, that didn't have a license plate. During the stop, Cowell and sheriffs deputies, using a drug dog, discovered 8.1 pounds of heroin in a backback inside the vehicle. Both were taken into custody and held on $250,000 bond. With the federal indictment, county prosecutor Jack Douglas recommended dismissal of the local charges in the interest of saving Boundary County the expense of prosecution and housing.