METH MISSILE MEMORABLE

Rocket apparently was ready to launch evidence away from scene.

"It was absolutely the most unusual thing I've seen." Cpl. Tom Walley

Drug dealers aren't typically rocket scientists.

Then again, Missouri Highway Patrol Cpl. Tom Walley's encounter with
a pair of Kentucky men he stopped for speeding last summer didn't
turn out to be a typical drug bust.

Not after Walley opened the trunk of their 1990 Ford Thunderbird and
a 4-foot rocket raised into an upright position.

Eight explosive charges at the base of the rocket were attached by
wires to the cigarette lighter on the car's dash. A flick of a switch
from inside the car would have sent the rocket and its payload skyward.

"It was plugged in. It was ready to go," Walley said Friday.

He and the officer with him "just looked at each other," he said.
Then they spotted what looked like several pipe bombs in the trunk.

"We decided not to mess with it and let the bomb squad do their
thing," Walley said.

After unplugging the device, troopers found bags containing two
pounds of methamphetamine inside the rocket.

The car's occupants, Joseph Calvin Seidl, 39, and Michael Ray
Sullivan, 41, were charged in federal court with conspiracy to
distribute methamphetamine.

This week, Seidl pleaded guilty in U.S. District Court in Jefferson
City. Sullivan pleaded guilty last month. They are now awaiting
sentencing and face 20 years to life in prison.

Walley said he was sitting in the median on Interstate 70 when the
Thunderbird came up fast. By the time he trained his radar gun on the
car, it was rapidly slowing down. He pulled the men over and when
they gave conflicting stories about what they were doing and where
they were going, the trooper asked if he could search the car.

When they refused, he called for a backup trooper and a drug-sniffing
dog. While waiting, Sullivan started running and threw something on
the ground, which turned out to be a small amount of meth. Sullivan
was caught and arrested and troopers began to search the car.

First they found $12,000 in cash in the passenger compartment. Seidl
later claimed that it was money he saved from his job as a "chicken
catcher" for Tyson Foods.

When Walley opened the trunk, he saw the 3- to 4-inch diameter rocket
that was pulled from a prone position by a series of pulleys and ropes.

In 12 years of patrolling Missouri's highways and arresting numerous
drug runners he had never come across such a device rigged, which
apparently was to jettison evidence before police could seize it.

"It was absolutely the most unusual thing I've seen," he said.

He has already been asked to share the experience at a conference for
other drug investigators.

"It was not only unusual for me, it was something incredibly unusual
for them," he said.