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TOOELE — The Utah Highway Patrol made another large drug bust on Interstate 80 over the weekend.
Troopers stopped a vehicle pulling a trailer on I-80 in Tooele County on Sunday for having an expired registration, according to a police booking affidavit.
"During the course of the traffic stop I became suspicious of further criminal activity and a police service dog was deployed for a free air sniff of the exterior of the vehicle," the arresting officer wrote in the affidavit.
When the police K-9 indicated there could be drugs inside, troopers obtained a warrant to search the vehicle and trailer further. In the trailer, investigators found 20 garbage bags containing approximately 550 pounds of marijuana in vacuum-sealed bags, the affidavit states.
Austin Allan Stagemoller, of Plainfield, Indiana, and Matthew Wyatt Keltner, of Mooresville, Indiana, both 26, were each arrested. On Monday, they were each charged in Tooele County's 3rd District Court with possessing more than 100 pounds of marijuana, a second-degree felony.
The incident marked the latest in a string of seizures of marijuana totaling over 100 pounds for troopers. In April, troopers seized 157 pounds and 227 pounds of marijuana in separate stops and 313 pounds in September.
