ISLAND PARK, IDAHO — An Iowa truck driver who was pulled over in Fremont County for reckless driving after reports of a semi going off the road was found to be carrying more than 200 grams of controlled substances including iboga root powder, ibogaine, and a heroin-based synthetic drug known as Bombé.
Selemani Mtenga faces four felony charges including possession with intent to distribute, eluding a pursuing police vehicle, possession of a controlled substance, and failure to give immediate notice of an accident that caused approximately $1,500 in damage to the semi he was operating.
A Fremont County deputy on patrol southbound on US Highway 20 near Island Park on August 28 was notified by dispatch of a report of a semi that had gone off the road with a broken trailer. The deputy located the truck traveling at 75 mph in a 65 and 45 mph zone. When the deputy attempted a traffic stop, the semi swerved into the passing lane and continued driving before pulling to the shoulder four miles later. Mtenga was arrested for reckless driving and placed in handcuffs.
During a vehicle search, the deputy found a plastic bag of brown powder on the floor near the driver’s seat, a container labeled as coconut oil filled with similar powder, and a plastic shopping bag containing 10 smaller bags of the same substance. Mtenga told deputies the powder was medicinal and plant-based and that he made it into tea and applied the oil to his skin.
Based on the appearance, effects, and cultural origins of the substance, the deputy identified it as tabernanthe iboga — a shrub native to Central and West Africa whose root bark contains ibogaine, a powerful psychoactive alkaloid classified as a Schedule 1 non-narcotic controlled substance in Idaho. When asked directly whether the substance came from the iboga tree, Mtenga said he was not sure and offered to call a relative in the Democratic Republic of Congo to obtain more, saying it could be shipped via DHL.
After weighing the evidence, investigators found nine small bags totaling 174.6 grams of red and brown iboga, one bag containing 13.9 grams of gray ibogaine, and one bag containing 13.9 grams of a black rock-like substance later identified as Bombé — a synthetic drug found primarily in the Congo and documented to be heroin-based, according to the National Library of Medicine.
Mtenga was initially booked into the Fremont County Jail and has since been released on his own recognizance. He appeared before Magistrate Judge Faren Eddins for a preliminary hearing on September 9.
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