Man in jail after officers find up to $100K worth of ‘pure powder fentanyl’ in Washington City

Composite image | St. George News

ST. GEORGE — A man is being held without bail after Washington City officers found a large amount of suspected pure fentanyl powder in the rental car he was driving – one of several fentanyl-related arrests in recent months.

2020 file photo for illustrative purposes only showing the outside of the Walmart store in Washington City, Utah, on July 15, 2020 | Photo by Chris Reed, St. George News

On Sunday, a K-9 officer was deployed to conduct a free-air sniff around a white Kia Soul with a California tag that was parked in the Washington City Walmart on Telegraph shortly before 4 p.m., according to the probable cause statement filed in support of the arrest. 

When the animal indicated the possible presence of drugs inside the car, the officer set off to write a search warrant. As he did so, two individuals left the store and approached the car, including the driver, identified as 59-year-old Anthony Ramirez, along with his fiance, the report states. 

When the officer told the couple he was writing up a search warrant, the driver reportedly said the car was a rental vehicle and then told the officers they wanted to leave. 

Both were detained while the warrant was being processed. 

Police say after the warrant was approved, the driver told authorities that any drug paraphernalia found in the car belonged to him and that his passenger was innocent. The suspect also told officers there were narcotics in his fiance’s backpack that also belonged to him, adding he placed the drugs in the pack as soon as he spotted police. 

Authorities then removed two large plastic bags containing a white powdery substance from the backpack that officers initially suspected to be cocaine, the report states.

While speaking with Ramirez, officers learned the bags actually contained “pure powder fentanyl,” as noted in the report. 

The suspect also reportedly told officers there was paraphernalia in the car associated with fentanyl use, all of which belonged to him.

During a search of the suspect, officers found a black leather envelope containing a large amount of cash. When asked, Ramirez said he was carrying $4,500 on his person, the report states. Police say the wallet actually contained more than $8,990 in currency, nearly twice the amount stated by the suspect. 

The two plastic bags of suspected fentanyl had a combined weight of more than a quarter of a pound, or roughly 146 grams, an amount the officer stated was inconsistent with personal use, and the value of the narcotics seized was estimated to be as much as $100,000. 

Authorities say the suspect said he bought the drugs in Las Vegas and purchased 114 grams but “had used some,” but this estimate was also off. Uncertainty of both money and substance is a behavior commonly seen with narcotics dealers that are unsure of how much they have sold, police say. 

Ramirez was arrested and transported to Purgatory Correctional Facility facing second-degree felony possession with intent to distribute and misdemeanor possession of paraphernalia. His fiance was not arrested, according to the report. 

Due to the seriousness of the charge, and the fact that Ramirez was traveling from out of state, the suspect is being held without bail, according to the report.  

Local efforts to curb the wave of fentanyl entering Utah 

The arrest on Sunday is one of several involving fentanyl that has taken place over the last several months, including a traffic stop last week in Washington City where officers recovered an estimated 1,000 pills of suspected fentanyl found in a plastic shopping bag on the floorboard of the car.

On the left, a vial containing a lethal dose of heroin, on the right, a vial containing a lethal dose of fentanyl | Photo courtesy of StatNews, New Hampshire State Police Forensic Lab, St. George News

In August, the Utah Highway Patrol seized 5 pounds of suspected fentanyl pills that were recovered during a traffic stop on northbound Interstate 15 in Iron County. The drugs were valued at more than $300,000.

Officers in St. George recovered $2,500 in suspected fentanyl pills in a trashcan in the restroom of a local restaurant,

The stakes were even higher for Aaron Michael Shamo, a 30-year-old Cottonwoods Heights man and CEO of a nationwide darknet drug trafficking organization. Shamo was sentenced to life in prison after being found guilty by a federal jury of organizing and directing a drug trafficking organization that imported fentanyl from China.

The fentanyl was used to manufacture more than half a million fake oxycodone pills that were distributed across the country, including hundreds of thousands of pills sold locally, where more than 90 of the defendant’s known customers died from overdoses, according to a statement released by the Department of Justice.

John W. Huber, who was the U.S. Attorney at the time the case was tried, called the fentanyl-laced pills “an extraordinarily poisonous substance,” in connection with the 2020 case.

Fentanyl – deadliest of all illicit drugs 

According to a 2019 Drug Assessment Report compiled by the Drug Enforcement Agency, fentanyl remains the primary force behind the ongoing opioid crisis and continues to be the most lethal of all illicit substances.

Infographic illustrating the overdose death rates among age groups per 100,000 residents | Image courtesy of the National Center for Drug Abuse Statistics, St. George News

In fact, over a two-year period, the death rate rose from 19,413 deaths in 2016 to more than 28,460 in 2017.

Fentanyl is a highly potent synthetic opioid that is supplied to the United States primarily from China and Mexico, where it is manufactured in clandestine operations and typically sold primarily in powder and counterfeit pill form. 

The overdose death rate involving synthetic opioids has increased more than 580% over a five-year period – from 2012-2017.

The northeastern states have significantly higher death rates from the drug. While on the West Coast, there are three states with death rates that are higher than the national average, which includes Utah, Arizona and New Mexico, according to the National Center for Drug Abuse Statistics

Drug overdoses kill more than 580 Utahns each year. The analysis also shows Utah’s overdose death rate has been steadily declining over the last three years.

According to the study, California has the highest number of deaths – nearly 6,200, while Wyoming, with 52, has the lowest number of deaths.

Maryland has the highest rate of deaths caused by overdose, which is 4.68%, compared to Utah, where 3.11% of all deaths across the state are caused by overdose.

The analysis also revealed that men are more than twice as likely to die from an overdose than women, and men between the ages of 25 and 34 are the most likely among all age groups to die from an overdose.

Overall, drug overdoses have killed almost a million people since 1999, and more than 96,700 people die from drug overdoses each year across the U.S. On average, opioids are a factor in 7 out of 10 overdose deaths annually.

Ed. Note: A new Utah law generally prohibits the release of arrest booking photos until after a conviction is obtained. 

This report is based on statements from court records, police or other responders and may not contain the full scope of findings. Persons arrested or charged are presumed innocent until found guilty in a court of law or as otherwise decided by a trier-of-fact.

Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2021, all rights reserved.

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