COTTONWOOD, Ariz. — During a routine traffic stop around noon on Sept. 3, Cottonwood police officers seized more than 10 pounds of illegal drugs and arrested two people.
Officers were conducting a highway stop on a black 2008 Audi traveling northbound on I-17, police said.
During the stop, officers noticed the driver, Jose Alfredo Soto-Vega, 27, did not have a valid driver's license. A narcotics K-9 free-air sniff was conducted outside the vehicle, police said.
The K-9 alerted to a positive scent of narcotics. Officers searched the vehicle where they found five pounds of meth and five-and-a-half pounds of fentanyl pills.
Soto-Vega and the passenger, Stephanie Avalos, 29, were both arrested and booked into the Yavapai County Detention Center.
The drugs combined had a street value between $600,000 and $800,000, police said.
