Man faces drug charges raid

The owner of Heads Up Tobacco Shop in Evergreen was arrested Wednesday in a raid by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency, Northwest Drug Task Force and Immigration and Customs Service.

The federal search warrant was served on Bradford L. Moore, 45, at his business at 2680 U.S. 2.

According to Kevin Burns, supervisor of the task force, officers found about a quarter ounce of methamphetamine, an eighth ounce of cocaine, a quarter ounce of marijuana, used scales, used syringes, and other paraphernalia.

The task force has received information over the past six months that drugs were being sold at the business, Burns said.

Moore was charged with possession of drugs with intent to distribute. When he was arrested, he reportedly said he was under the influence of methamphetamine.

"He was in such bad shape, he was barely able to function at the time of his arrest," Burns said.

Moore was arrested four years ago, when he operated a store called "Heads Up" on Main Street in Kalispell.

He was shut down under the state "head-shop statute," said Police Chief Frank Garner. Passed in 1981, it makes it illegal to deliver or manufacture drug paraphernalia.

Garner said he had warned Moore that items in his store were illegal. They included pipes and marijuana-cultivation catalogs, mushroom-cultivation items, scales, plastic bags, and other items that one could "reasonably conclude" aren't used for tobacco, Garner said. Stickers on some of the items said "for tobacco use only."

The law makes illegal items that "will be used to plant, propagate, cultivate, grow, harvest, manufacture, compound, convert, produce, process, prepare, test, analyze, pack, repack, store, contain, conceal, inject, ingest, inhale, or otherwise introduce into the human body a dangerous drug."

While the city has a law against such businesses, the county does not. Moore's shop was relocated outside the city limits in Evergreen.

Moore reportedly has a conviction in 1988 for felony possession of dangerous drugs.