Great Bend man faces meth charges after Alco purchase
A Great Bend man is being held in the Marion County jail on methamphetamine charges after a suspicious cold medicine purchase at Hillsboro's Alco tipped off an alert sheriff's deputy.
Early Monday afternoon, at 12:20 p.m., Marion County Sheriff's Deputy Mike Fisher was at Alco serving civil process paperwork when he noticed a man in a parked car staring at him nervously, according to Sheriff Lee Becker.
Once inside the store, Fisher noticed that another man, also acting strangely nervous, was buying four packages of cold medicine. The medicine contained pseudoephedrine, an ingredient used to manufacture methamphetamine.
Fisher saw the man who bought the medicine enter the car he'd noted outside, so he began to follow the car as the two occupants headed east, Becker said. By the time he'd had time to check out the car's license plate, both vehicles had crossed the Chase County line on U.S.-50.
The car that the deputy was following eventually pulled over voluntarily, near Clements Road, and the passenger got out, claiming he was sick. The passenger, identified as Bun Coffman of Cottonwood Falls, was transported by ambulance to the Morris County hospital, located in Council Grove.
At this time, officials from the Chase County Sheriff's Department, the Kansas Highway Patrol, and the Marion County Sheriff's Department were on hand.
Marion's K-9 dog wasn't able to detect the presence of drugs, so the officers present got consent from the driver to search the vehicle. That's when they found 529 cold medicine pills hidden in the trunk of the car, Becker said.
The driver, Richard Leroy Atkins of Great Bend, was arrested by Chase County officers for intent to manufacture methamphetamine. He was then transferred to Marion County custody and transported to the county jail.
The passenger of the car, Coffman, will likely face similar charges, Becker said. Coffman was arrested a few weeks ago in Andover for possession of methamphetamine, he said.
