ST. GEORGE —A traffic stop for speeding and a suspicious travel story led the driver’s arrest over the weekend after officers reportedly recovered two packages of suspected fentanyl.
On Saturday, a silver Mustang convertible was stopped for speeding on northbound Interstate 15 near the Brigham Road Exit in St. George at 11:45 p.m. A Washington City Police officer working a criminal interdiction detail had noticed the vehicle heading north at 83 mph in a posted speed zone of 70 mph, according to charging documents filed with the court.
The officer also noted the Mustang with Arizona plates was “traveling at a greater speed than all other vehicles on I-15.”
While speaking to the driver, 31-year-old Andrew Akira Shigeta, of Los Angeles, California, the officer became suspicious of the driver’s “travel story,” the report states. While the officer was writing up a citation for speeding, a K-9 team responded and the dog reportedly indicated the possible presence of narcotics. The driver was detained and the car was searched.
Inside the trunk, officers found a cardboard box containing two packages wrapped in several layers of bubble wrap that contained “a large amount of a white powder” consistent with fentanyl, the officer noted. A field test later confirmed the substance was fentanyl with a combined weight of 1 pound.
Washington City Police Chief Jason Williams told St. George News the amount of fentanyl seized, if broken down into street-level sales, was valued at more than $65,000.
Following the stop on I-15, officers spoke to the driver, who was the sole occupant and the only one listed on the Mustang’s rental agreement. He also reportedly denied having any knowledge of the narcotics that were later recovered from the car, the officer noted.
The suspect was arrested and transported to Purgatory Correctional Facility facing second-degree felony count of possession with intent to distribute a controlled substance. He also faces misdemeanor charges of possession of a controlled substance and paraphernalia that were added after officers found a glass pipe with a white residue consistent with methamphetamine during a search of the Mustang’s center console.
The suspect remains in custody on $10,000 bail, according to the bail order signed by District Judge G. Michael Westfall on Sunday morning.
Fake fentanyl and the unsuspecting public
According to a report released by the Drug Enforcement Agency last week, more than 8.1 million fake fentanyl pills and 1,660 pounds of fentanyl powder have been recovered so far this year.
That is the equivalent of 41.7 million fatal doses of the drug, the DEA says, which could kill everyone living in Utah roughly 10 times over.
The report also indicates that last year, more than 57.7 million fentanyl-laced pills and more than 13,700 pounds of fentanyl powder were seized by authorities.
“The 2022 seizures are equivalent to more than 410 million lethal doses of fentanyl,” the DEA report says.
Moreover, due to its cheap production cost and high potency, fentanyl is being added or mixed into almost every purchasable drug, according to the DEA Washington Division, and now, the agency is finding fentanyl in nearly every street drug. The deadly drugs are then sold to an unsuspecting public “and delivered as easy as DoorDash delivers food.”
“We are fighting this new crisis of fentanyl-related overdoses even among people who never intended to ingest an opioid,” the report said.
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, 2023, all rights reserved.