Four men accused of smoking marijuana in a vehicle swerving across a Sheridan road this week are now in jail — and on the radar of federal immigration officials, authorities say.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has placed detainers, or requests for the jail to hold the four men, the Sheridan County Detention Center confirmed Friday to Cowboy State Daily.
All were accused of possessing marijuana and other misdemeanor-level crimes, and at least one has been sentenced.
The men are Edwin Yosue Gaticia Lopez, 24, Mauro Solorzano, 27, Cesar Lopez Hernandez, 21, and Luis Romero Hernandez, 24. They’re still in jail, the detention center noted.
The Drive
Sheridan Police Department Cpl. Chase Philipp is fluent in Spanish, says an affidavit he filed Wednesday in the four men’s cases.
Philipp responded Tuesday at about 4:37 p.m. to a liquor store on 700 N. Main St. in Sheridan, after a man called in a suspected drunk driver in the area, the affidavit says.
By the time Philipp arrived the vehicle, a gold Chrysler Sebring with a temporary Colorado plate on it was parked at the liquor store.
He found Gaticia Lopez in the driver’s seat, Solorzano in the front passenger seat and the other two men in the back seats, Philipp wrote.
The corporal smelled burnt marijuana as he stood near the vehicle, he wrote.
Gaticia Lopez supplied an identification card out of Minnesota. But Philipp soon learned the man’s driver’s license from that state was suspended, says the document.
Just So You Know
Philipp spoke Spanish with the men, since they spoke little English, he wrote.
He let them know he could smell marijuana.
Lopez Hernandez said he smoked earlier that day but none of the drug was in the vehicle, but he then admitted to “small amounts of marijuana” being in the Chrysler, the document says.
Authoriteis searched the vehicle and found marijuana throughout it. The men exhibited “cotton mouth,” Philipp wrote.
An officer found two backpacks, one claimed by Lopez Hernandez and one claimed by Gaticia Lopez.
In one bag, officers found a double-sided combat-style knife and a bag of marijuana; in the other they found a misdemeanor amount of a substance that later tested presumptive positive as both meth and marijuana, the document says.
For Safety’s Sake
An officer interviewed the man who’d called in the drunk driving report.
The man elaborated, saying he saw the men passing around a small pipe while smoking and traveling down the road.
The driver, Gaticia Lopez, banged the pipe on the outside of the vehicle while the vehicle swerved all over the road, which made the caller feel he was obligated to report the dangerous behavior, he said.
Philipp noticed that all four men had red, bloodshot eyes, he wrote.
Once Gaticia Lopez arrived at the jail, deputies found a powder inside a blue baggie, and inside a $1-bill in his wallet that tested presumptive positive for meth, the affidavit adds.
Tic Toc
If ICE wants to retrieve Gaticia Lopez or Lopez Hernandez from jail, it now has less than a week to do so, court documents show.
They were sentenced Thursday to seven days in jail on misdemeanor charges.
Romero Hernandez was charged with misdemeanors of drug use and marijuana possession.
Solorzano is set for a June 3 conference hearing, on misdemeanor charges of drug use and marijuana possession, his court file says.
Sheridan County Sheriff Levi Dominguez told Cowboy State Daily on Friday that his office is cooperating with ICE.
"We'll continue to work with ICE as this progresses," he said.
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
