ELOY, Ariz. — Skyrider Suites used to be the go-to spot for skydivers headed to Eloy but all that changed about a year ago.
"It used to be a place where you can come and rent a room and stay during a busy weekend at Skydive Arizona," said Waynerd Davis as he stood in front of the run-down red motel in Eloy. "And then it quickly turned into a place that you needed to watch very closely."
Davis, a skydiver, said he used to stay there years ago.
Just a few feet away Eloy Mayor Micah Powell stood, just across the highway from the motel.
There was no one at the motel, doors were left open, and furniture sat overturned in the parking lot.
Powell and the City of Eloy are accusing the owners of the Skyrider Suites of acting as an illegal rehab facility, though the amount of rehab that was actually going on is questionable at best.
Eloy is known as a skydiving Mecca, where people come to learn how to skydive, and the motel used to be a destination for skydivers Even the U.S. military trains its special forces in how to skydive and parachute in Eloy.
The motel sat just outside the entrance to the airport and the skydiving business was inside. For years, skydivers would stay there.
Then, last year, the motel sold.
"All of a sudden we started getting more service calls from our police department," Powell said.
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According to police records obtained by 12News, Eloy Police logged dozens of calls for service to the motel. The cases range from drug calls to assaults, domestic violence, even a suicide, and a sexual abuse investigation.
“Trafficking is probably a good word for what they were doing," Powell said.
According to a report from the Arizona Department of Health Services, staff at the motel told investigators they were still a motel, but that all the rooms were booked...for good.
A manager at the motel said it had a contract with Mireille Wellness Center to house patients seeking drug and alcohol treatment, according to the report.
However, AZDHS could not find that any rehab services were actually taking place at the location.
According to DHS records, Mireille Wellness Center is located in Phoenix, an hour's drive away.
"Just dumping them," Powell said. "Like a set it and forget it kind of thing."
The more city officials looked into the business, the more they suspected it was operating in violation of city zoning. Hotels were ok, but a rehab facility or halfway house was something else.
"There was no supervision," Powell said. "We want to protect them, but they're the ones that were just left out in the cold by this company."
According to police records, there was a man who was identified as a counselor living on-site.
Police reports show a woman who said she was there for rehab claimed the counselor would bring her drugs while flirting with her. She told police the counselor told her if she wanted to stay, she would have to "please him". She said she woke up naked with the man after blacking out while doing drugs.
The counselor was later arrested for an outstanding warrant.
It's enough to make Powell angry. Because he knows what it takes for someone to make the decision to try to get clean.
He had to make the same decision.
“I lived in a homeless shelter," Powell said. "You know, I've seen that side of life, I've been there, I've experienced it and so I understand that part."
Mireille Wellness was placed on a list of more than 100 companies accused of billing AHCCCS out of hundreds of millions of dollars over the years. According to a letter sent to the company by AZDHS, Mireille Wellness is accused of a pattern of suspicious billing for its patients.
After the announcement from Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes, Powell said the Skyrider Suites shut down and the residents disappeared. He's not sure where any of them ended up.
12News tried unsuccessfully to reach the owners of Skyrider Suites and Mireille Wellness Center.
No state agency would talk to 12News about the business or what happened to the people who were living there.
Powell said the city is looking for ways to prevent this kind of thing from happening again.
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