3 Salt Lake County men arrested in 'large scale' meth bust


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WEST VALLEY CITY — Three men were arrested after police recovered more than 10 pounds of meth, two guns and thousands of dollars in cash during multiple raids of a suspected “large scale” drug ring over the weekend, according to a jail report.

Rey Garcia, 28, of West Valley City, Sebastion de Los Santos, 20, of West Valley, and Steven Flattre, 52, of Kearns, were arrested and booked into Utah County Jail Sunday in relation to the bust, according to Utah County Jail records.

The arrests were a result of raids at each of the men’s residences.

Utah County Major Crimes Task Force detectives executed a search warrant of Garcia’s West Valley City apartment Saturday, where the meth and firearms were recovered. One of the guns had been reported stolen, according to the report. It added several thousand dollars packaged in six plastic bundles were found in an open safe in Garcia’s bedroom.

During another raid at de Los Santos’s apartment Saturday, detectives recovered two more pounds of meth and more than $3,000 in cash. Investigators also found more than a half-pound of methamphetamine during a raid of his West Valley residence Sunday, according to jail reports.

Detectives investigating a methamphetamine case in Utah County began focusing on Garcia’s West Valley City apartment during a monthslong investigation. Detectives then began wiretapping his phone on Feb. 22, the report stated.

Garcia either arranged or met with customers to distribute methamphetamine at least 10 times during the wiretapping investigation and he said he “typically only sells pound quantities at a time” during one of those calls, according to the jail report.

Investigators found “several” co-conspirators throughout the wiretapping process, including a driver who assisted in delivering the methamphetamine and two unknown individuals who he reported money counts and meth quantities to, according to the report.

Flattre and de Los Santos, who detectives suspect were Garcia’s co-conspirators, were also identified through the wiretapping process.

The report stated detectives monitored “several communications” between Garcia and de Los Santos in which de Los Santos took direction from Garcia to deliver methamphetamine to customers.

Flattre “worked in concert with several other members of this group to facilitate the distribution of methamphetamine from other states, into Utah, and then on to other street-level distributors,” according to the jail report.

Authorities said they monitored conversations between Flattre and Garcia during the wiretapping investigation.

Court records show Garcia and Flattre each have a lengthy criminal history in Utah. There was no criminal history for de Los Santos in Utah court records. All three were being held on $100,000 bond, jail records show.

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Carter Williams is an award-winning reporter who covers general news, outdoors, history and sports for KSL.com.

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