Two years after they allegedly caught a Cody man trying to obtain a sizable shipment of meth, authorities are prosecuting him.

The Park County Attorney’s Office recently charged Thomas A. Booth with a felony count of possessing a controlled substance in connection with the 2024 incident. Booth, who is now 63, turned himself in last week before being released on a $10,000 surety bond.

The case stems from a package that was reportedly shipped to Booth’s Cody home from Arizona on Jan. 4, 2024. A postal inspector in Tucson reportedly noticed that it “met various suspicious parcel parameters” and the Wyoming Division of Criminal Investigation (DCI) intercepted it in Cody.

In an affidavit recounting the investigation, DCI Special Agent Shane Reece said he enlisted the aid of a drug detection dog from the Greybull Police Department. Among seven innocuous packages, K9 “Jimi” honed in on the suspicious shipment from Arizona, Reece wrote, indicating that it smelled like a controlled substance.

After obtaining a federal search warrant, authorities opened the package and found a Crest Whitestrips box inside that, instead of containing teeth-whitening treatments, concealed 84 grams of apparent meth, the affidavit says.

Authorities then conducted a type of sting: On Jan. 11, 2024, an agent with the U.S. Postal Inspective Service posed as a mail carrier and delivered the package to Booth’s Bleistein Avenue home.

A few minutes later, Booth took it inside — and agents soon moved in. Within the residence, officers reportedly found 15 grams of apparent psychedelic mushrooms, a small amount of apparent meth and marijuana and various drug paraphernalia, including pipes and digital scales.

Reece later searched Booth’s cellphone and, according to the agent’s affidavit, found evidence showing that Booth had arranged for meth to be shipped from Arizona.

In a later interview with DCI, Booth allegedly admitted he’d obtained meth from the same person before. According to the affidavit, Booth explained that the supplier sometimes sent the drugs by mail and sometimes drove the controlled substances to Cody. The supplier is not identified in the charging documents, with Reece referring to the person as just a “known source of supply.”

The affidavit describes the 84 grams as a “large quantity” — its street value would theoretically reach into the thousands of dollars — but Booth reportedly told DCI that he was not selling meth.

Authorities did not arrest Booth at the time, because they thought federal prosecutors might take up the case, Reece wrote. However, that never happened, and the agent wrote his affidavit to support a state-level charge in November 2024. More than a year later, in late December, the Park County Attorney’s Office filed the count of felony possession.

At his initial court appearance last week, Booth indicated that his life has changed since the incident: “I’ve been clean for two years,” he said.

Deputy Park County Prosecuting Attorney Marina Tucker recommended that Booth’s bond be set at $10,000 cash or surety, and Circuit Court Judge Joey Darrah agreed.

Circuit court records show that Booth is also facing misdemeanor counts of domestic battery, criminal trespassing, interference with an emergency call and property destruction for early August altercations with his ex-girlfriend in Cody. Charging documents in that case allege Booth broke into the woman’s residence two times; at one point, he allegedly took her phone and put his hand over her mouth to keep her from screaming. For his part, Booth reportedly denied ever touching the woman and he has pleaded not guilty to all four charges.

He’s been free on a $1,500 cash bond since August in that case. His attorney, Brigita Krisjansons, asked for a delay to those proceedings last week, noting ongoing “plea negotiations” and the new felony charge.

A preliminary hearing in Booth’s drug case is tentatively set for Thursday.