The newest member of the Grantsville City Police Department made a big splash with a sizable marijuana bust at a DUI checkpoint early Saturday morning.
Officer Joseph Lopez, who is still in field training, was working a checkpoint at milepost 3 on Interstate 80 shortly after midnight, according to a probable cause statement. When Lopez approached the vehicle with his flashlight, he said he saw green flakes that appeared to be marijuana on the driver’s lap.
Lopez said he asked the driver, later identified as Nicholas Kemp, 29, of Omaha, Nebraska, if there was anything illegal in the vehicle and Kemp gave him a grinder with marijuana. With probable cause to search the vehicle, Grantsville City Police Sgt. Lydon Allred took Kemp into custody and the passenger, Nicholas Shinn, 22, of Omaha, Nebraska, exited the vehicle.
Kemp told Allred there were other illegal things in the vehicle that officers would find, the probable cause statement said.
During a search of the vehicle, Lopez discovered a sandwich bag of marijuana in the passenger compartment and multiple garbage bags containing about 50 individual bags in the trunk and rear floor of the passenger compartment.
A locally viral Facebook post by the Grantsville City Police Department, which garnered more than 800 reactions, 290 comments and 135 shares by Thursday morning, listed the total weight of the marijuana at approximately 65 pounds.
When asked how he felt about making such a significant bust so early in his career, Lopez said he was glad to catch the black market drugs en route.
“I think it’s really good,” he said. “It’s always a good thing to stop drugs coming through.”
Allred said it’s not common to get a bust like that, though a large amount of drugs come through Tooele County via I-80. He said the car was packed with a “suicide load,” in which a vehicle is packed with as much drugs as possible and driven straight through to the destination by a couple occupants.
“I was pretty excited for Lopez because I knew what he was getting himself into,” Allred said.
While the marijuana in this case was being driven from California to Nebraska, Salt Lake City is a major distribution hub for illegal drug traffic, according to Allred. With two interstate highways — Interstate 15 and I-80 — running through the city, drugs are funneled into Salt Lake then dispersed, he said.
About six months ago, Grantsville City police officers also made a bust that netted three pounds of methamphetamine, according to Allred.
The two suspects in the marijuana bust, Kemp and Shinn, were both charged with third-degree felony possession with intent to distribute a Class C substance and misdemeanor manufacture or delivery of drug paraphernalia.
Kemp and Shinn are scheduled to make initial appearances in 3rd District Court on Oct. 29 at 10:30 a.m.