WASHINGTON CITY, Utah (ABC4) – Two people have been arrested after police discovered a massive bounty of drugs during a traffic stop in Washington City.
The Washington City Police Department has identified the suspects as Jose Mateo, 30, and Patricia Moreno, 35.
The suspects were first pulled over after officers noticed a malfunctioning brake light on the suspects’ vehicle along with a partially covered licensed plate.
Police pulled the car over on I-15 near mile marker 13. Officers spotted the driver, Mateo, and two other women inside the car — Moreno sleeping in the front passenger seat and another woman in the backseat, Roxanna Hernandez.
During questioning, Mateo told police he did not have a valid driver’s license and only had a California ID card on his mobile phone.
Police discovered Mateo had an active warrant for his arrest. While parked, police deployed a K-9 to conduct an open-air sniff of the suspects’ vehicle. The dog positively indicated the presence of illegal substances inside, arresting documents show.
While searching the car, officers did not locate anything suspicious inside the main cabin. While searching the trunk, they spotted a speaker box with screws that had “tooling marks” indicating “the screws had been removed and placed back on several times.”
When police removed the screws, they found a large plastic bag wrapped in towels inside the speaker box. Unwrapping it, officers found several smaller plastic bags filled with over two pounds of fentanyl pills. The pills were disguised as counterfeit oxycodone pills.
In the same bag, police also found bags containing heroin and cocaine, both weighing two pounds each.
“All three suspects informed us on scene that they have ties to Mexico and do not have any ties to Utah,” police say.
Both Mateo and Hernandez were arrested on three charges of possession of a controlled substance with the intent to distribute.
