It’s a story Valley News Live continues following for you: the former Wells County Sheriff Johnny Lawson jailed after an investigation linking him with meth use, bribery and failing to do his duties as a law enforcement officer. The tip we first received last month was from a caller telling us Lawson resigned because of a drug investigation. New details are emerging now of what investigators were looking into, including drugs, guns, money, bugs placed in offices and illegal GPS trackers.

This investigation reads like a movie script, involving illegal GPS trackers, a bug placed in the Chief of Police’s office, burglaries, a woman tied to a chair and sex acts performed, drugs, money, felons illegally owning firearms and surveillance cameras unknowingly installed.

Former Wells County Sheriff Johnny Lawson faces conspiracy to deliver meth, bribery and false reports to law enforcement among other charges, and was arrested late last week.

The investigation into Lawson’s alleged actions is 38 pages long, BCI agents starting their investigation back in March of last year after two home burglaries in Harvey and Fessenden, North Dakota. The suspects involved include two men known to be meth dealers in the area. Throughout all of last summer, more burglaries are committed in the region by the same people, the court documents saying they were continually reported to then-Sheriff Lawson, but that he just looked the other way.

The reason for that is believed to be because those same individuals were supplying Lawson with meth, Lawson not investigating their actions so long as they were “putting a smile on Johnny’s face.”

Lawson faces 25 years in jail and tens of thousands of dollars in fines if given the max sentence.

Click the links to see our previous coverage, and to read the court documents outlining the investigation.