ST. GEORGE, Utah, Feb. 24, 2024 (Gephardt Daily) — A routine traffic stop yielded a homeless man allegedly holding a whopping 30 pounds of methamphetamine.
Thirty pounds of meth has a street value ranging, depending on purity, between $144,000 and $672,000, according to various law enforcement websites.
“The narcotics were being transported in one-pound packages, consistent with illegal distribution,” reads the charging documents for Larry Steven Horton, 52, identified in the court files as homeless out of San Bernardino, Cal.
Held without bail in the Washington County Jail, he is scheduled for a Mar. 12 hearing to argue for setting of bail, requested at his arraignment by his public defender. He is charged with second-degree felony drug distribution, and misdemeanor counts of drug possession and possession of paraphernalia.
The Utah Highway Patrol spotted him at 12:43 a.m. in a vehicle with its right rear blinker “in continuous operation while in the far right lane, for a significant distance, without making a lane change or pulling over,” according to Horton’s probable cause affidavit written by a UHP trooper.
He pulled the northbound vehicle over on I-15 for the “signal violation/unsafe lane travel” at milepost 3. Neither the driver nor Horton had a driver’s license or identification, the trooper wrote, and they were in a rental vehicle and had no rental contract.
“I became suspicious of criminal activity and called for another unit. When my backup arrived, he conducted a consensual pat down of Horton during which he located a used meth pipe in his pocket,” according to the affidavit.
“A subsequent probable cause search of the vehicle was conducted and approximately 30 pounds of methamphetamine were located in a duffel bag in the passenger compartment.”
In requesting Horton be held without bail, the trooper noted he was on probation for a prior felony, his record showing multiple convictions.
