ST. GEORGE — More than $610,000 in narcotics were seized during a traffic stop in Iron County early Friday morning that landed two suspects in jail – including the passenger who was out on bail on another drug distribution case filed one week prior in Salt Lake City.

On Friday, a Utah Highway Patrol trooper stopped near mile marker 63 observing traffic noticed a white passenger car traveling north with a missing registration sticker on the license plate. The plate was also obscured and did not show the state in which it was issued.

According to the probable cause statements filed in support of the arrests, the trooper followed the car for roughly 5 miles before conducting a traffic stop near mile marker 68 shortly after 4 a.m. As the officer approached the car, he noticed a radar detector mounted in the middle of the windshield.

While speaking to the driver, identified as 43-year-old Jay Neale Jensen, of Centerville, the trooper became suspicious and deployed a K-9 to conduct a free-air sniff around the car – during which the animal indicated to the possible presence of narcotics, according to the report.

The driver and his front-seat passenger, identified as 46-year-old Joshua Andrew Mize, were ordered out of the car and a search of the vehicle ensued.

During the search, troopers located a 9 mm handgun in a backpack located in the back seat of the car that belonged to Mize, the report states, a firearm that police say had a loaded magazine and a bullet in the chamber.

Troopers also located a box in the trunk that contained a vacuum-sealed package containing suspected heroin, and also in the box they found three large packages of a white crystalized substance consistent with methamphetamine. Both substances later field-tested positive for narcotics.

The two men were transported and booked into jail in Iron County facing two counts of possession with intent to distribute a controlled substance, and the driver was also cited for three vehicle violations.

Mize also faces one felony count of possession of a dangerous weapon by a restricted person.

During a background check, officers discovered that Mize had just been arrested on felony distribution of narcotics one week prior in Salt Lake City, and he was out on bond when the arrest early Friday morning took place on I-15.

The evidence was taken to the Utah Highway Patrol office in Iron County. After weighing the packages, troopers determined the suspects were transporting one kilo of heroin and 30 pounds of meth, the report states.

‘Operation Pipeline’ 

The value of the narcotics seized during the traffic stop is estimated to be worth more than $610,000, and the street value could be as well over $1 million, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. It is the state’s transportation infrastructure and Utah’s location that makes it an important transit area used to transport illicit drugs.

Those factors have led to the implementation of “Operation Pipeline,” which is a national highway interdiction program supported by the Drug Enforcement Administration and the El Paso Intelligence Center, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.

While a majority of the drugs transported into Utah by Mexican criminal groups are destined for other areas of the United States, there are groups that also distribute wholesale quantities of these narcotics throughout the state. According to the National Drug Center, the Mexican criminal groups that transport and distribute drugs in Utah typically have a structured hierarchy of members and are typically controlled by a single family.

Drug seizures from private vehicles, such as the Velasquez arrest over the weekend, are reported to Operation Pipeline by federal, state and local law enforcement agencies operating nationwide along the highways and interstates most frequently used to transport illegal drugs and drug proceeds.

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. 

Following Friday’s arrest, both suspects remain in custody without bail.

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