CEDAR CITY — Two suspected drug traffickers were arrested Saturday morning following a traffic stop on Interstate 15 a few miles north of Cedar City.
Claudia Janeth Coronado-Sanchez, 35, and Abel Benitez Santoyo, 33, were each booked into Iron County Jail on Saturday afternoon on suspicion of multiple drug possession charges.
According to the probable cause statements filed in support of the pair’s arrests, shortly after 7 a.m. Saturday, a Utah Highway Patrol trooper clocked their northbound Toyota Corolla at 86 mph in an 80 mph zone near mile marker 63 at the northern edge of Cedar City.
The trooper wrote that he began to follow the car and watched it slow down to 70 mph in the left lane, with its driver not yielding to two other faster-moving vehicles that had to overtake it on the right.
After seeing the car’s rear window brake light was also covered by window tinting, the trooper then activated his emergency lights and pulled over the vehicle near mile marker 68.
Neither Coronado-Sanchez, who was driving, nor Santoyo had a valid driver’s license, according to the affidavit. The car had California license plates.
“While I was working on the citation, I became suspicious of criminal activity and asked the driver for consent to search the vehicle,” the arresting trooper wrote, adding that the occupants both provided verbal and written consent for a search.
The trooper noted that he subsequently found an air compressor in the trunk that had a door cut into the side of the tank that was then patched up and repainted.
“Based on my experience and training I believed the tank was full of illegal narcotics,” the trooper wrote. “I placed both individuals under arrest.”
Hidden inside the compressor tank were bags containing 60 pounds of methamphetamine and 3 kilograms of fentanyl pills, the trooper wrote, estimating the total local street value of the narcotics to be approximately $1.7 million.
Additionally, the trooper found a $1 bill in the driver’s purse that had a white powder residue that tested positive for meth. The driver provided a urine sample, which returned a preliminary positive for meth.
“During interviews, it was found that both occupants knew about the narcotics in the vehicle and were transporting (them) to Denver, Colorado,” the trooper wrote.
As of Monday afternoon, both defendants remain held without bail in Iron County Jail as they await their respective initial court appearances. Each faces two counts of possession of a controlled substance with intent to distribute, a second-degree felony; plus three misdemeanor counts of possession of drugs and paraphernalia.
Additionally, Coronado-Sanchez faces one count of driving with a measurable amount of a controlled substance, a class B misdemeanor, along with the infractions of driving without a license, speeding and the taillight violation.
Both defendants have immigration holds in place, according to jail records.
“They are both from Mexico and the passenger was deported back in 2019,” the trooper wrote in the affidavit.
This report is based on statements from court documents or law enforcement officials 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.
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