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SALT LAKE CITY — One hundred pounds of methamphetamine worth a little more than $2.2 million was seized during three separate traffic stops in Emery and Iron counties over the course of two days, authorities said Thursday.
Utah Highway Patrol officials said all three vehicles were believed to be headed east from California to distribute drugs to areas in Colorado, Nebraska and Ohio. Multiple arrests were made during the three stops, but authorities didn't immediately release the individuals' names as a part of ongoing investigations, UHP Cpl. Colton Freckleton said.
The first stop was made shortly before 8:40 a.m. Tuesday. Troopers pulled over a vehicle traveling east on I-70 in Emery County for an unspecified traffic violation, according to Freckleton.
Troopers became suspicious during the traffic stop and a K-9 officer specialized in detecting narcotics was brought to the scene to assess the vehicle, Freckleton said.
The K-9 alerted troopers there was a scent of narcotics. and troopers subsequently found 20 pounds of methamphetamine and at least 500 oxycodone pills. Troopers said they believe the vehicle was coming from Southern California and headed to Canton, Ohio.
At 10:20 a.m., another trooper pulled over a second vehicle along the same stretch of freeway. Just like the stop less than two hours earlier, the trooper became suspicious of criminal activity and a K-9 officer was brought to the scene. After the K-9 alerted the presence of drugs, authorities located 41 pounds of methamphetamine, Freckleton said.
He said the vehicle was also coming from Southern California and headed to Omaha, Nebraska.
The third stop occurred on I-15 in Iron County shortly after 5 p.m. Wednesday. Freckleton said a trooper stopped a vehicle and noticed signs of drug use and a pipe used for methamphetamine in the passenger side of the vehicle in plain view. Authorities then found 39 pounds of methamphetamine inside the vehicle, according to Freckleton.
The vehicle was also coming from Southern California and was destined for Colorado, officials said.
Authorities say the amount of methamphetamine seized equates to more than 450,000 dosages. Freckleton said the agency is proud to have prevented that many dosages from being distributed in communities.
"(It's) pretty close to half-million dosage units of meth, so potentially we just stopped a half-million users from using (the drug)," he said.
