CEDAR CITY —A 22-year-old man arrested Monday on warrants out of Cedar City 5th District Court was charged with additional counts when officers allegedly discovered multiple drugs in his vehicle, as well as the suspect’s connection with a reported stolen vehicle.
Triston Rivera had previous warrants for several charges, including class A misdemeanor possession of a controlled substance, third-degree felony possession with intent to distribute, class A misdemeanor possession of another person’s identity and unlawful acquisition, possession or transfer of a financial card.
Cedar City Police Department Lt. Jimmy Roden told Cedar City News that officers were alerted to Rivera’s location at the Love’s Travel Stop in Cedar City and that when officers located him, he was in possession of “a variety of drugs.”
“They were packaged in a way that led officers to believe he was intending to sell the drugs,” Roden said.
Upon arresting Rivera on his warrants, officers searched the vehicle he was in and found methamphetamine, heroin, marijuana, Xanax, Lorazepam, Alprazolam and amphetamine pills in his vehicle. A scale, small baggies and methamphetamine pipes were also found in the vehicle, and Rivera told officers the narcotics were his.
Additionally, Rivera was the suspect in a stolen vehicle case from March 19, when the owner of the vehicle contacted the police department to report it stolen. According to the probable cause statement filed in support of the theft charge, the man’s girlfriend had given Rivera permission to use the vehicle to “run an errand around Cedar City but (she) advised him not to leave the city and have it back by the evening.”
When the vehicle wasn’t returned by the next day, the owner reported it stolen. According to the probably cause statement, the girlfriend told police she heard from a third party that Rivera was in Nevada and the vehicle had possibly broken down. The vehicle was listed as stolen, and that same night, it recovered on Interstate 15 southbound near Mesquite, Nevada.
Rivera was charged with second-degree felony theft of an operable vehicle, in addition to multiple charges for the drugs found in his vehicle: three counts of second-degree felony possession with intent to distribute, two counts of class A misdemeanor possession of a controlled substance, one count of third-degree felony possession with intent to distribute, class B misdemeanor possession of a controlled substance and class B misdemeanor possession of drug paraphernalia.
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