Federal authorities said recently arrested methamphetamine heroin dealer Patrick Brigaudin, 54, of Springfield, Missouri, put .1 million into slot machines at Downstream Casino Resort in Quapaw, Oklahoma, between January 2009 and April 2015, and withdrew more than .4 million from them. The casino is owned and operated by the Quapaw Tribe.
Brigaudin was taken into custody with three other men on February 29 for conspiracy to distribute large amounts of drugs, after agents with search warrants found more than 50 pounds of methamphetamine heroin in his garage, including 12 pounds of meth and six and one-half pounds of heroin in a secret compartment under a truck bed, according to the complaint.
Prosecutors moved to keep Brigaudin in custody without bond until his trial. “The weight of evidence against the defendant and the substantial sentence he faces provide him with a very strong incentive to flee if he is released on bond,” they wrote.
The investigation into Brigaudin’s activities lasted more than two and one-half years. Court documents said investigators claimed Brigaudin was a “large-scale methamphetamine distributor” in southwest Missouri with access to “enormous sums of money.” He recently had traveled outside the U.S., prosecutors said.
