Oct. 19 arrest made for 56-gram deal completed in March 2022

A Missouri State Highway Patrol controlled drug buy in March has resulted in the arrest of a Mt. Vernon woman for first-degree drug trafficking.

Cassandra Hooper, 29, of Mt. Vernon, was booked into the Barry County jail on Oct. 19, being held on a $100,000 cash-only bond for the Class B felony.

According to a probable cause statement filed by Sgt. Zack Bryan, with the Patrol, on the afternoon of March 25, 2022, an investigator with the Patrol’s Division of Drug and Crime Control used $1,000 in cash to purchase 56 grams of methamphetamine from Hooper near Purdy.

At the time, the statement said, this was a normal price for that amount of methamphetamine, and funding for the transaction was provided by the Patrol.

The transaction was audio recorded and surveilled by law enforcement personnel. The crystal substance purchased from Hooper was certified by the Patrol’s Crim Laboratory as 56.05 grams of methamphetamine.

Hooper was not arrested at the time of the transaction, pending the completion of overt and covert operations as party of an ongoing investigation.

The warrant for Hooper’s arrest was issued on Oct. 13. At that time, Bryan reported Hooper had two failure to appear warrants issued by the Monett Police Department, and she was on a five-year supervised probation, for possession of a controlled substance, that began on Feb. 14, 2022.

An initial appearance has been held for Hooper, and a disposition hearing was held on Thursday.