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IDAHO FALLS — Two men were arrested after a police K9 reportedly alerted officers to drugs at a courier service facility.
Virgil Wayne Rogers, 52, and Justin Dale Sanders, 42, were both charged with felony drug trafficking methamphetamine.
On May 29, a detective with the Teton County Sheriff's Office told an Idaho Falls police officer she received a tip from the Ontario, California, police department about a package of suspected methamphetamine being delivered to a home in Idaho Falls, according to court documents.
The Idaho Falls police officer learned a suspicious package had been sent through UPS via next-day air from a UPS store in Victorville, California, to an address in the Shady Glen cul-de-sac in Idaho Falls.
On May 30, Idaho Falls police were notified by UPS security that the package had arrived at the UPS depot in Idaho Falls. Multiple detectives with both Idaho Falls police and Teton County met at the UPS facility, where they had a K9 officer conduct a free air sniff on the package and other random packages in the facility.
The K9 reportedly alerted positively to potential drugs inside the suspicious package.
UPS then opened the package and found another package made from painting canvases and wrapped in bubble wrap and cellophane.
Inside the constructed box were "two vacuumed, sealed bags containing a white crystallized substance resembling methamphetamine," according to police reports.
One of the bags reportedly weighed 466 grams, and the other allegedly weighed 2,346 grams, or 5.17 pounds. After testing, both bags' contents returned presumptive positive for methamphetamine, police said.
Officers asked UPS to deliver the package as scheduled after they replaced one of the bags of methamphetamine with salt and placed a recording device in the package.
A UPS employee met with an Idaho Falls police officer near the home in Idaho Falls. According to police reports, before the package was delivered, officers saw a white pickup truck with a trailer containing landscaping supplies in the driveway of the home.
They also noticed two men, later identified as Rogers and Sanders, in front of the home, court documents state.
Once the package was delivered, an officer reportedly saw Sanders pick it up and place it in the passenger seat of the pickup truck, police say.
While listening in on the recording device, the officer reportedly heard Sanders speak with Rogers and say the contents may contain 8 pounds, according to court documents.
Officers then arrested Rogers and Sanders without incident.
During a search of Sanders, officers reportedly found a small plastic baggy containing 16 grams of a white crystallized substance resembling methamphetamine, police said. The substance later tested presumptive positive for methamphetamine.
During an interview with police, Sanders stated he did not know what was in the UPS package. When asked about what was heard on the recording device, he said that he and Rogers knew what was inside the package, according to court documents.
He then told the officer that multiple packages of narcotics are being sent to other addresses as well, according to police documents.
A search of the pickup truck reportedly found a "small blue tin with a white crystallized substance resembling methamphetamine" along with a "homemade water pipe," according to court documents.
Both Sanders and Rogers were arrested and booked into the Bonneville County Jail.
