A 44 year old Schofield man remains in the Lincoln County Jail after Lincoln County deputies and officers from the Merrill and Tomahawk police departments located a significant amount of methamphetamine after a traffic stop.
A Merrill Police officer and Lincoln County deputy stopped a vehicle being operated by Joel Richard Conti early Friday morning on West Main Street at Wright Street, after observing it operate with a defective exhaust.
Due to Conti’s two previous convictions related to the production or possession of methamphetamine, the K9 unit from the Tomahawk Police Department was called to the stop location. The dog indicated on the vehicle and during a subsequent search law enforcement located multiple packages of methamphetamine.
Conti was booked into the Lincoln County Jail on felony charges of possession with intent to deliver of methamphetamine and possession of drug paraphernalia to manufacture, compound, produce or store methamphetamine. At a bond hearing on Monday, a Lincoln County Judge set a cash bond of $10,000.
Conti has two previous convictions in Marathon County for methamphetamine related crimes. After being convicted in 2012 in two felony cases related to the possession of methamphetamine with intent to deliver and the manufacture of methamphetamine, he was sentenced to eight years of probation along with six months in the county jail.