SALT LAKE CITY — It’s a tireless job as it is — trying to identify and halt the flow of drug traffic that passes through the state along interstates and highways.

The Utah Highway Patrol’s interdiction troopers seize thousands of pounds of drugs per year, but they’re watching for far more than just illegal narcotics — with specialized training to detect a number of other serious crimes, including those committed against children.

“One of the most vulnerable situations a criminal is in is when they’re transiting on the highways and our interstates,” said Maj. Brian Redd, director of the State Bureau of Investigation at the Utah Department of Public Safety. “They’re in a situation where they can be stopped and questioned and they’re vulnerable if they’re carrying evidence of a crime or narcotics or whatever the case may be — child pornography.”

The case

It was Nov. 20 along a stretch of I-70 just outside of Richfield, and trooper Lance DeGraw had stopped a car on an apparent registration violation.

“While in contact with the driver of that vehicle, he detected the odor of raw marijuana,” said Sgt. Steve Salas, who supervises criminal interdiction efforts and the southern K-9 team for the Utah Highway Patrol.

Dash cam video obtained by KSL shows the driver, subsequently identified as Bruce Leach, asking DeGraw if it appeared that his car was “smoking.”

After exiting the car and inspecting the front of the vehicle, the video shows the tables starting to turn on Leach.

“You don’t have anything illegal on you, do you?” DeGraw asked Leach.

“No,” Leach replied.

“K, I’m smelling marijuana in the car,” DeGraw stated.

“Really!?” Leach said.

“Yeah, it’s pretty strong,” DeGraw said in the video, taking Leach into custody.

UHP officials noted under the “plain touch” doctrine, an officer has probable cause to search a vehicle if he can touch, see, hear, taste or smell evidence of a crime.

Roughly 20 minutes into searching Leach’s car, investigators came across a significant find in the trunk.

“[The] search of that vehicle revealed approximately 100 pounds of marijuana,” Salas said.

Troopers didn’t stop there.

Salas said it is standard practice when drugs are found to obtain search warrants for cellphones and any other electronics in the vehicle.

Among the items seized in the case were three USB drives that State Bureau of Investigation agents said were tucked inside a box belonging to Leach.

“There were photographs which appeared to be child pornography, located on one of the thumb drives,” Salas said.

Salas said SBI agents determined the images were taken in an area of Adams County, Colorado.

Adams County sheriff’s detective Matthew Peterson said the USB drives also contained over 40 videos in which Leach had filmed a 12-year-old girl, many times sexually assaulting her when she appeared to be passed out or asleep.

The job

Uncovering evidence of serious crimes at the side of a road is never easy, and to some degree requires a by-the-numbers approach.

“There’s really no magical key,” Salas said. “It’s really just about stopping a lot of vehicles for traffic violations and looking for the indicators.”

Salas, who has worked interdiction cases for nearly his entire career, said troopers like him have to remain constantly and keenly aware of their instincts, circumstances and surroundings.

“When you come into contact with some of those people that are more nervous on the second approach than they were originally, you question why is this person’s nervousness increasing as we’re coming to a conclusion in the traffic stop,” Salas offered as an example.

Salas said interdiction troopers try to make as many traffic stops as they can in a day when not obligated by other calls.

“We’re taking advantage of that maybe seven minutes that we’re allowed to conduct a traffic stop, write a citation, run them for warrants, run the registration, check their insurance to become suspicious of criminal activity, and if there’s no evidence of criminal activity, then we’re releasing those motorists with a citation or a warning for what that original traffic stop was,” he said.

Salas said it takes years of experience to fine-tune some drug-detecting skills, including knowing the compartments where drugs may be hidden in vehicles.

“You realize that there is a huge amount of drug trafficking, credit card fraud, identity fraud, transporting of stolen property, transporting of weapons that’s occurring daily that’s driving past you and you just hope that you can be successful in trying to recognize those indicators when you come into contact with that vehicle,” he said.

The longtime UHP veteran said the job remains interesting and fulfilling “to remove narcotics off the highways, knowing they’re not going into that community and going to potentially affect somebody’s life.”

“It’s all been rewarding and I still fully enjoy it after 18 years,” Salas said.

The training expanded

Redd said plans were in the works over the next year to train additional troopers and local police under a program developed by the Texas Department of Public Safety and Federal Bureau of Investigation known as “Interdiction for the Protection of Children.”

Interdiction troopers have already received the training, he said, and are watching for signs such as if adults and a child or children in a vehicle aren’t familiar with one another, or if travel plans, stories and circumstances don’t seem to make sense.

“[It’s] so that our troopers aren’t just looking for narcotics or trafficking and weapons, but they’re also looking for crimes that may be committed against children,” Redd said.

The case revisited

Peterson said detectives did not believe Leach was distributing the videos of the 12-year-old.

Leach posted bail shortly after his arrest in Sevier County related to the drug seizure, officials confirmed.

Peterson said a national warrant was subsequently issued for sexual assault on an at-risk victim, sexual assault on an at-risk child victim and sexual exploitation of a child.

Leach was apprehended in Bremerton, Washington, on another traffic stop and was awaiting extradition, Peterson said.

Peterson credited troopers for their work on the case.

“I just can’t say enough [about the Utah Highway Patrol],” Peterson said. “They put in so much hard work, and I was very impressed with the job they did.”

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