Franklin Troy Caplette, Meth Smuggling, Montana 2019

GREAT FALLS, Montana – Franklin Troy Caplette, a 36-year-old man from Box Elder, Montana, was sentenced to 42 months in prison for his role in a meth smuggling scheme at the Cascade County Detention Center.

According to court documents, in May 2019, detectives began to investigate a drug smuggling scheme while Caplette was incarcerated at the Cascade County Detention Center. Caplette arranged for people outside of the jail to bond out inmates, provide the defendants with drugs to conceal in their rectums and have the defendants smuggle the drugs back into the jail.

When defendants returned to the jail, they told detention officers who their enemies were at the jail so they could get placed into the right pod to distribute the drugs.

In June 2019, a judge temporarily released Caplette to attend a relative’s funeral on the Rocky Boy’s Indian Reservation and directed him to return by 5 p.m. the next day. While on release, Caplette spoke by cell phone with jail inmates and told one inmate he was “coming in hot.” Detectives waited at the jail for Caplette, who arrived late. While Caplette went to the booking area, Caplette’s wife told detectives that they never made it to the funeral and instead went to other places before returning to Great Falls.

Detectives served a warrant on Caplette to search his body for drugs and took him to an emergency room for an x-ray. The x-ray showed three oblong-shaped objects in Caplette’s abdomen. Caplette eventually passed the bags. An analysis determined that one of the bags contained meth, while two of the bags contained tobacco.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Jessica Betley prosecuted the case, which was investigated by the Russell Country Drug Task Force, Drug Enforcement Administration, Great Falls Police Department and Cascade County Sheriff’s Office.

This case is part of Project Safe Neighborhoods, a U.S. initiative to reduce violent crime. According to the FBI’s Uniform Crime Reports, violent crime in Montana increased by 36% from 2013 to 2018.

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