Estimated read time: 6-7 minutes
SALT LAKE CITY – A routine, early morning traffic stop along Interstate 15 in Utah quickly turned into something more last November.
Dash and body camera footage recorded a Utah Highway Patrol trooper pulling over a car with two men inside. The trooper approached, letting them know the light above their rear license plate wasn't working and the dark tint on the vehicle windows was not legal in Utah.
"Smelled burnt weed in the car," the trooper is heard saying softly to himself as he heads back to his vehicle.
The trooper's suspicion grew after the driver told the trooper he was headed to Utah to visit a cousin, but he wasn't sure where the cousin lived, and he said he couldn't remember his cousin's name.
The driver then gave the trooper permission to search the car.
"All right, we got them," the trooper is heard saying to a colleague as he pulled bags of little blue pills out of a hiding spot in the back of the car. "They're loaded."
Hidden in what's known as a "deep trap" – a pocket of empty space inside a vehicle – the troopers had found an estimated 18,000 fentanyl pills.
The discovery highlights a troubling trend law enforcers know about, but many citizens may not be aware of: Loads of illegal and deadly drugs are traveling I-15 to and through Utah every day.
'Our greatest threat'
"Interstate 15 is the most heavily used drug corridor north/south in the western United States," said Dustin Gillespie, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration's assistant special agent in charge in Utah.
Gillespie told the KSL Investigators that I-15 presents the easiest and quickest route for the Mexico-based Sinaloa and Jalisco cartels to move drugs north and eventually east.
"When those drug shipments come up Interstate 15, a lot of times they'll continue up into Utah, to Montana, into Canada, and the places like Alberta," Gillespie said. "Or they'll make an eastbound turn on Interstate 70 and head further east towards the Atlantic Seaboard."
While the DEA investigates the trafficking of a variety of illegal drugs, Gillespie said fentanyl is their primary concern.
"It is our greatest threat here in Utah," he said.
In June, the DEA announced another record for fentanyl pill seizures in Utah in just six months' time. Between Jan. 1 and June 30 this year, the agency seized more than 774,000 fentanyl pills, surpassing the previous record set last year: 664,200 pills seized in Utah in all of 2023.
"There's probably an increased supply of fentanyl coming into the United States, and into Utah in particular," Gillespie said.
'We know what roadway they're coming up'
"We know where the drugs come from. We know what roadway they're coming up. We know they're in our community," said Major Jeff Nigbur, assistant superintendent of the Utah Highway Patrol.
He said 42% of the agency's drug seizures happen on I-15, far more than any other Utah roadway. And since October, UHP has seized more than 103,000 fentanyl pills.
Those pills would have sold for $25 to $30 each five years ago, according to UHP. But today, the agency said one fentanyl pill costs only $2 or $3 on the street in Utah. It's a sign, investigators say, that there's more fentanyl flowing through the state than ever before.
"Most of the drug seizures that we're seeing on I-15 have direct ties to Mexican cartels," Nigbur said.
Additionally, he said the agency had two of its biggest seizures ever this year – one was roughly 1,600 pounds of marijuana; the other was 246 pounds of methamphetamine.
"It gives you a general idea of the amount of drugs that are on that road," he said.
Nigbur said there's no way to know how many drugs are still making it to the intended destination.
"I would imagine what we're able to get off the road is a small percentage," he said.
But every load stopped by UHP and other Utah agencies is one that doesn't make it into the community.
"I think we are on the front lines because we're getting, typically, the loads in transit before they reach their destination," he said. "Which is a good thing."
'A rolling pharmacy'
"You never know what you're going to find," said UHP Sgt. Jeff Blankenagel during a recent shift patrolling I-15. He is one of the troopers on the front lines.
Starting in Nephi, the KSL Investigators rode along with Blankenagel one afternoon as he pulled over drivers for traffic violations.
He's part of UHP's drug interdiction team, which now has 10 full-time members. It used to only be a part-time effort, until a budget increase from Utah's Legislature last year helped them grow the team. Still, they cover hundreds of miles – not only I-15 but Interstate 70 and Interstate 80 as well.
Through years of traffic stops and watching millions of cars go by, Blankenagel said he's learned to recognize subtle driver behaviors that give drug couriers away.
"It's that desire to not be seen," he said, noting drug loads can be in any kind of vehicle, with any type of driver.
"They're just kind of a rolling pharmacy," he said. "I've had a car that's had methamphetamine, marijuana, heroin, ecstasy, Xanax."
Blankenagel said members of the task force are trained to handle stops in a way that does not violate the rights of those they pull over, while still building enough probable cause to search vehicles they find suspicious. They often use K-9 officers to sniff around vehicles they think might have drugs inside. And they're experts at discovering unlikely hiding places for drugs within vehicles.
Nigbur stressed that while the team is responsible for many of the drug loads UHP intercepts, they're focused on all criminal interdiction – they've also made stops involving human trafficking, fraud operations and more.
'Never seen that'
During a stop last October, dash and body camera footage provided to the KSL Investigators showed a UHP K-9 alerting after sniffing around a vehicle, giving troopers probable cause to search. Inside a shoebox, they found heroin and cocaine.
"There's your dope load," a trooper is heard saying in body camera footage from another stop last year, as he pulls a child's car seat out of a vehicle.
A false bottom in the car seat was packed with heroin. Even for experienced troopers, that was a new one.
"Never seen that," another trooper remarked.
In a recording shared with the KSL Investigators, one of the drug couriers arrested in the stop where drugs were found in a car seat admitted in an interview with law enforcement that he'd done roughly 10 similar drops in the six months before he was caught.
Each of the people arrested in the stops reviewed by KSL took plea deals. Most served some time in jail but had their prison sentences suspended in favor of probation.
Have you experienced something you think just isn't right? The KSL Investigators want to help. Submit your tip at investigates@ksl.com or 385-707-6153 so we can get working for you.
