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ST. GEORGE —Three defendants in two unrelated cases appeared for sentencing in federal court after tens of thousands of fentanyl pills were recovered during a search of each of the vehicles during a traffic stop last fall.
On Sept. 27, Rigoberto Beltran-Garibay, 20, a Mexican national from Sinaloa, appeared before U.S. District Judge David Nuffer in federal court for sentencing on one felony count of possession of fentanyl with intent to distribute.
The case was filed following a traffic stop on Interstate 15 near the St. George Boulevard exit the evening of Oct. 5, 2022. A K-9 indicated the presence of narcotics, prompting a search of the vehicle Garibay was driving.
During the search, police say they found more than 62 individual packages, each containing an estimated 1,000 suspected fentanyl pills. The packages had a combined weight of more than 15 pounds, and detectives estimated there were roughly 62,000 pills in total, the deputy noted in the probable cause statement filed at the time of the arrest.
