Local man wanted for drug dealing

Saturday, October 4, 2008

A Greencastle man charged with Class A felony dealing in cocaine has continued to elude capture since March.

A warrant for the arrest of Michael Smoot, 44, of the 100 block of South Jackson Street was issued on March 27, but authorities have been unable to locate Smoot.

According to court documents, Putnam County Sheriff's Department officers met with a confidential informant on March 22. The informant said he was "willing to make a controlled buy" at Smoot's home.

The informant told officers he had heard Smoot "had just gotten into town with a load of cocaine to sell," and that Smoot had already offered to sell him cocaine if the informant would come to Smoot's house.

The informant "advised that he did not like the sale of this type of drug around children and wanted to assist us in catching him," a report fro the Putnam County Sheriff's Department said.

The informant was fitted with a wire and give $200 in cash to make the buy. He was followed by two officers to Smoot's home.

The informant entered Smoot's home, where he purchased nine bags of cocaine. After the buy, the informant told officers he had been told Smoot also had a large quantity of marijuana.

Officers were also able to capture a sale to another subject through the informant's wire.

Later that same evening, member of the Greencastle ERT Team served a search warrant on Smoot's home, but by the time they got there Smoot -- and the drugs -- were gone.

"A small amount of marijuana shake, stems and seeds could be located throughout the apartment; however, no quantity was located," court documents said. "A strong odor of green marijuana could also be detected throughout the apartment."

Smoot's criminal history in Putnam County consists of traffic infractions and a 2005 misdemeanor marijuana possession charge that was dismissed.

A Class A felony carries a maximum prison term of 50 years.

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  • LOOK AT V.B.L. HE WITH HIS BUDDIES.

    -- Posted by wil8139us on Sat, Oct 4, 2008, at 3:29 PM
  • Couldnt a warrant have been prepared for the chance he was found to be having something? Couldnt a warrant have been called in? Seems like I've seen/read that in the newspaper before. Kind of sounds stupid and unorganized to put a citizen(even a bad one) at risk w/a hidden wire and send them in to this dealers home to see if he has something and then drive off w/o anyintelligent result? It's nice to know that the law enforcement agency/ies involved Barney Fifed it and these drugs will still find their way to its target,maybe including our kids. I'm sure a warrant could have been prepared in the event they found cause,and definately a call in request for a warrant to our local Judge.Seems just rediculous and unproductive for events to unfold in this way.

    -- Posted by honestyisbestpolicy on Sat, Oct 4, 2008, at 10:36 PM
  • Unbeleavable.....Another Putnam County job at it's finest i tell ya!But o'wait we have new Sheriff in town these type's of things won't happen anymore....Give it time let him get comfortable and i'm sure he will mess up i mean he has only hired every extended family member and friends into his office to assist him....

    -- Posted by Buck_Hunter_2008 on Sun, Oct 5, 2008, at 1:27 AM
  • Honesty, stop watching t.v. it's not helping you any. Learn the system before you attack it!

    -- Posted by WTFRUthinkin on Sun, Oct 5, 2008, at 7:22 AM
  • To all you hick morons that have responded to this story with all your negativity, learn how to spell, get a life, really learn what is going on in this county and if you think you can do a better job, go do it. You people obviously have too much time on your hands and not enough brains in those thick skulls to shut your mouths about things you know nothing about. Go back to sleep!

    -- Posted by magoo55 on Mon, Oct 6, 2008, at 8:29 AM
  • I think I remember when the raid took place. Didn't the BG have an article about it? And in the comments, a lot of people seemed to be sympathetic with the dealer, who got his door busted in.

    ""Later that same evening, member of the Greencastle ERT Team served a search warrant on Smoot's home, but by the time they got there Smoot -- and the drugs -- were gone. ""

    Sounds like the time between the informant's sale and warrant was plenty of time for Smoot to be tipped off and skip town. So, Magoo and WTFRU, honestyi.b.p.does raise a valid question about timing and tactics. There are probably legit reasons why he outsmarted the system and stays one step ahead of the law. Also Magoo and WTFRU, whether we like it or not, everyone has the right to be negative here, even if they can't spell.

    -- Posted by Xgamer on Mon, Oct 6, 2008, at 3:30 PM
  • Hello everyone!!

    This is not a mishap on the cops part. It just really makes the situation that more fun. Now police officers and sheriff officers can put down the donuts and actually do something exciting for once. Some people see this as a lack of intelligence letting the criminal escape, but if you know the law there really isn't much to do without a warrant present. This isn't the movies. Although I would have thought the GCPD should have gotten a warrant before the buy then they could have served it as soon as the deal was made.In my opinion, Buck Hunter should really try using spell checker or at least a few lessons from Hooked On Phonics. But at least you tried.

    -- Posted by WhySoSerious on Mon, Oct 6, 2008, at 6:57 PM
  • No follow up on this story yet? Hmm,guess that whole deal went bad...Good ol hindsight. Wonder why the banner hasnt ran anything else on it ,even a " suspect still out smarting local lawmen" story. lots of questions on this whole story are begging to have answers.

    -- Posted by honestyisbestpolicy on Thu, Oct 9, 2008, at 6:03 AM
  • Seat belt laws, turn signal laws, speed limits, dealing cocain, doing drugs, beating your spouse, drunk driving, stealing, public indecency, all these things and countless others have laws against them because we, as a people, haven't figured out that we shouldn't do them. Most of us have, but for those that haven't, we have the fine men and women of law enforcement that work hard to make sure that, despite the attempts of some, we are mostly safe.

    I, for one, say a big THANKS to our local and state police agencies for putting US first.

    -- Posted by ThinkPeopleThink on Thu, Oct 9, 2008, at 6:11 AM
  • That's interesting. This story was printed on October 4, 2008. They picked up Smoot at 2 am the same morning (before the story was printed) in Indy. Now why did they print this story claiming he's still on the loose? Do you really think they're going to tell you the truth?

    -- Posted by PenGwen on Thu, Oct 9, 2008, at 9:35 PM
  • People on here complain when they get pulled over for a broken turn signal or seat belt violation, yet they say the officers are doing nothing but eating donuts and sitting on their butts! Do you realize a traffic stop is the most dangerous encounter an officer will have? You do not know if you're pulling over a saint or someone wigged out on meth. By the way, you can not get an arrest warrant, search warrant or any other kind of warrant because some ex druger comes to you and says "hey, yall, Billy Bob is sellin dope out his house!" PROBABLE CAUSE. If anyone here put down the remote and stopped watching CSI and picked up a book, they would be as embarrassed as I am to read these comments.

    -- Posted by WTFRUthinkin on Sun, Oct 12, 2008, at 5:25 AM
  • hah! they don't have any proof! the "wire" story isn't a drug deal, it's a conversation over a legitimate debt between the accused and his former boss! what gpd won't do for a big story to claim they are doing something real when in reality they just ran good productive people out of their town for good. well, i say good riddance to putnam county.

    -- Posted by PenGwen on Sun, Oct 12, 2008, at 7:39 PM
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