Kootenai Forest pot growers sentenced

Two Lincoln County residents were sentenced to prison Sept. 7 on charges of growing marijuana in the Deep Creek drainage north of Whitefish.

Edwin Lee Beyer, 45, of Fortine, was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Donald W. Molloy to seven months in prison, six months home arrest and three years supervised release. Robert Schmitz, 50, of Trego, was sentenced to seven months in prison, seven months home arrest and three years supervised release.

Beyer and Schmitz were found guilty of conspiracy to grow marijuana on May 3 in Missoula after a two-day trial in federal district court.

According to federal charges, in late summer 2001, Forest Service law enforcement officers on the Kootenai National Forest were tipped off about marijuana plants growing in the Deep Creek drainage.

Officers responded and found 48 marijuana plants growing in what remained of a burned slash pile. They placed surveillance cameras to monitor the plants and waited. Later, they visited the site and found most of the marijuana plants had been harvested.

While reviewing the videotape, the officers learned from an anonymous source that one of the people on the video looked like Beyer. The informant also told the officers Beyer was known to associate with another person.

The officers interviewed the third individual, who admitted he had assisted Beyer and Schmitz with a marijuana grow operation at Meadow Creek, also on the Kootenai National Forest.

When Beyer and Schmitz were interviewed, Beyer admitted harvesting marijuana plants at the Deep Creek area with Schmitz and tending about 30 to 40 plants in the Meadow Creek area.

Schmitz, however, claimed he found the marijuana plants in the Meadow Creek area and returned to harvest them some weeks later with a machete, and he denied any other involvement. Several weeks later, after Beyer had been interviewed, Schmitz told law enforcement officers he wanted to change his story.

According to federal charges, Schmitz later claimed he had harvested marijuana from another site, but claimed he did not know where it was. He claimed he had overheard some men in a bar discussing their marijuana grow operation, including a detailed description of its location. He claimed he was able to locate the grow and harvest it, though he was not able to give a description of the men whose conversation he heard.

Agents took a plaster cast of a footprint found at the Deep Creek site and performed searches of the residences of both Beyer and Schmitz, providing evidence which was used by assistant U.S. Attorney Josh Van de Wetering in prosecuting the case. Agents also found user-amounts of marijuana and paraphernalia.