Former state police officer convicted of drug charges

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — A former New Mexico State Police Officer has been convicted of distributing marijuana intended for a 16-year-old girl he pulled over and a separate drugs-for-sex scheme.

U.S. District Court records show 36-year-old Daniel Capehart of Bloomfield was convicted Thursday of two counts of distributing marijuana and a third count of distributing methamphetamine. He faces between five and 40 years in prison, the Albuquerque Journal reported.

Prosecutors say Capehart pulled over the teen and a friend in Farmington on June 15, 2018. He obtained the girl’s phone number and birthday and began texting her about an hour later. One text said told the girl she was “the most beautiful woman” he had ever met.

The girl and her father reported the texts to a San Juan County sheriff’s detective, who used the girl’s phone to text the officer. Authorities say Capehart twice left marijuana intended for the girl at drop locations, once near a high school.

That same month, the FBI made contact with a female who said she’d been texting with Capehart for about nine months. The agent began texting with her, and authorities say Capehart proposed a scheme in which he would arrest someone for transporting marijuana and give the woman some of the drugs in exchange for sex. The next day, he pulled over and arrested an undercover FBI agent and left the drugs at a pre-arranged location near an elementary school.

The Associated Press