Missoula Police Arrest Habitual Offender for Having Fentanyl

Missoula, MT (KGVO-AM News) - On July 2nd, 2024, at around 7:15 PM, Missoula Police Department Officers responded to the Albertsons parking lot on N Reserve St for a female who was slumped over the wheel of a vehicle. Call notes indicated that there was a female slumped at the wheel for the past 20 minutes. The officers located the vehicle and walked up to the driver.  

The driver was on her cellphone and immediately reacted to the officer when he walked up to the window. The officer asked her if she could step out of the car and she did so. The female was later identified by her Montana driver's license as 39-year-old Lindsey Tracy. 

Tracy said she was on her phone reading about a prescription medication she was picking up at the pharmacy. She said that she had been in the parking lot looking at her phone for approximately 15 minutes. The officer asked her if she was suffering from any kind of medical emergency and informed her that medical services were on their way. Tracy said she was fine and was not suffering from an emergency.

As the officer spoke with her, Tracy appeared to want to walk away from the interaction and distance herself from her vehicle. Another officer observed a tooter straw in plain view inside of the vehicle and informed Tracy that she was detained and not free to leave.  

Officers searched her vehicle at the request of on-call Probation. K9 Zip performed open air sniffs around Tracy’s vehicle. K9 Zip alerted to the presence of drugs on the second pass by the passenger side of the vehicle. During the probation search of the vehicle, an officer seized the previously observed tooter straw and further located a piece of tinfoil with burn marks and a small blue pill which he recognized from his training and experience as partially smoked fentanyl. 

READ MORE: Missoula News – Crime Report 

The officer read Tracy her Miranda warning and she verbally acknowledged that she understood her rights. The officer asked Tracy what drugs she typically uses and she said “Fentanyl.” According to court documents, Tracy told the officer that the last time she used was around 10:00 a.m. that day. During the course of the search of her vehicle, Officers seized fentanyl and drug paraphernalia. 

Tracy was placed under arrest and is currently being charged with felony criminal possession of dangerous drugs and criminal possession of drug paraphernalia.  

On June 5, 2024, Tracy got caught with Fentanyl at a local casino. On December 11, 2023, Tracy was arrested for having over 90 fentanyl pills in the Missoula jail bathroom. She was charged with felony tampering with or fabricating physical evidence and felony criminal possession of dangerous drugs. 

The information in this article was obtained from sources that are publicly viewable.