Drug Task Force action at Knights Inn; arrests on heroin, cocaine, meth and weapons charges

Warrant and drug-related arrest at Knights Inn Hotel, St. George, Utah, Nov 20
Warrant and drug-related arrest at Knights Inn Hotel, St. George, Utah, Nov 20, 2012 | Photo by Chris Caldwell, St. George News (Faces blurred)

ST. GEORGE – After receiving information that a man, wanted by St. George Police on an arrest warrant outstanding for some time, was holed up in the Knights Inn Hotel at 1140 S. Bluff Street yesterday, the department’s SWAT and Drug Task Force combined forces to first monitor and then successfully arrest the man on charges of alleged distribution and possession of heroin, cocaine, meth amphetamines and marijuana, on alleged weapons charges, and on the outstanding warrant for drug dealing.

Three other suspects, two women and one man, at the scene at the time of the arrest of the primary suspect, were also arrested and booked on counts of alleged possession.

In this case, St. George Police Captain Kyle Whitehead said, the police were acting on a “no-knock” warrant with information that the suspect posed a threat. Situations like these often result in confrontation and therefore the task force took time and care to observe the activity going on and assess the situation before taking action.

After watching the suspect move several suspicious boxes between the room and the vehicle, and watching people coming and going from the room, typical to drug activity, police applied for a search warrant to provide them access to the hotel rooms involved as well as the suspect’s vehicle.

When the primary suspect came out to his truck to leave, officers surrounded the vehicle and arrested him without incident. The other three arrested just happened to be there, Whitehead said, and were all taken into custody as well without resisting and without incident.

Exercising the search warrant, Whitehead said the task force found distributable amounts of heroin, methamphetamine, and cocaine as well as a lot of cash – “thousands of dollars in cash,” he said, and multiple handguns.

“Anytime there are guns and drugs together it can enhance the charges,” Whitehead said. “According to state law you can’t possess both narcotics and handguns.”

Finding cocaine was notable. Whitehead said the force does not see a lot of cocaine in this region, so seeing that, this arrest is likely going to make a dent.

The primary suspect was booked into Washington County Jail, with bail set at $165,000 in the aggregate. One of the female suspects was booked with bail set at $31,850 in the aggregate, the other female and male suspects were booked, each with bail set at $11,850 in the aggregate.

Note: Persons arrested are presumed innocent until found guilty in a court of law or as otherwise decided by a trier-of-fact.

St. George Police Department, Drug Task Force, warrant and drug-related arrests at Knights Inn Hotel, St. George, Utah, Nov 20, 2012 | Photo by Chris Caldwell, St. George News (Face blurred)
St. George Police Department, Drug Task Force, warrant and drug-related arrests at Knights Inn Hotel, St. George, Utah, Nov 20, 2012 | Photo by Chris Caldwell, St. George News (Face blurred)
St. George Police Department Drug Task Force officer, warrant and drug-related arrests at Knights Inn Hotel, St. George, Utah, Nov 20, 2012 | Photo by Chris Caldwell, St. George News
Warrant and drug-related arrest at Knights Inn Hotel, St. George, Utah, Nov 20, 2012 | Photo by Chris Caldwell, St. George News (Face blurred)
Warrant and drug-related arrest at Knights Inn Hotel, St. George, Utah, Nov 20, 2012 | Photo by Chris Caldwell, St. George News (Face blurred)
Warrant and drug-related arrest at Knights Inn Hotel, St. George, Utah, Nov 20, 2012 | Photo by Chris Caldwell, St. George News (Face blurred)
Warrant and drug-related arrest at Knights Inn Hotel, St. George, Utah, Nov 20
Warrant and drug-related arrest at Knights Inn Hotel, St. George, Utah, Nov 20, 2012 | Photo by Chris Caldwell, St. George News

St. George News Editor-in-Chief Joyce Kuzmanic contributed to this article.

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Twitter: @STGnews

Copyright St. George News, StGeorgeUtah.com Inc., 2012, all rights reserved.

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