Two men and one woman all in their early 20s with Ecuadorian passports were arrested Saturday on claims a Wyoming Highway Patrol trooper caught them speeding through Sweetwater County with around 80 pounds of illegal drugs ranging from meth to heroin.
The two men, 22-year-old Edgar Narvaez Vega and 21-year-old Pedro Narvaez Vega, also are both wanted by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), a Sweetwater County Sheriff’s Office spokesman related from notes on their jail files.
The woman, Iris Ugarte Niola, 23, is not currently wanted by ICE, the notes indicate.
ICE did not return a request for the trio’s immigration status by publication time.
Sweetwater County Deputy Attorney Steven Anselmi-Stith charged the three Monday with drug-related felonies.
(Wyoming Highway Patrol) 
(Wyoming Highway Patrol)
The Trouble Started …
Wyoming Highway Patrol Trooper Clancy Gines was traveling west on Interstate 80 on Saturday when he saw a black Sedan driving eastbound at 80 mph with a shattered side mirror, says an affidavit Anselmi-Stith compiled from Gines’ notes.
The driver at first failed to yield when Gines flicked on his emergency lights, but eventually stopped about 2 miles later, the document says.
Gines approached the vehicle and the odor of raw marijuana overwhelmed him, reportedly.
The affidavit says he noticed a small jar containing raw marijuana, which is an illegal drug in Wyoming, lying between a passenger’s feet.
The driver, identified by his Ecuador passport as Pedro Narvaez Vega, said his brother had a marijuana joint and there were no other illegal items in the car, the affidavit relates.
The female passenger, Niola, sat on top of the back seats, which were laid down.
Gines and another trooper searched the vehicle and found a grinder containing raw marijuana shake, a jar containing raw marijuana, four white trash bags containing several large packages wrapped in yellow plastic wrap, and another package in which Gines spotted a substance he determined to be crystal meth, the document alleges.
Because there were so many drugs, Gines left them all in the vehicle to identify and test later at the WHP Rock Springs district office.
The affidavit says that later search revealed meth, cocaine, fentanyl and heroin, all testing presumptive positive for their respective substances.
Those alleged weights and substances were as follows:
• 63 packages crystal meth, weighing 74.17 pounds.
• Two packages cocaine, 2.6 pounds.
• One package fentanyl pills, 1.3 pounds.
• One package heroin, 1.5 pounds.
• One bag of raw marijuana shake, 8.5 grams.
• One jar raw marijuana, 137.7 grams.
The Tally
Pedro Narvaez Vega faces five felony charges, each punishable by up to 20 years in prison and $25,000 in fines.
Those are one count of conspiring to deliver meth, and four counts of possession with intent to deliver drugs: one count each for meth, fentanyl, cocaine and heroin.
Edgar Narvaez Vega and Iris Mell Ugarte Niola each face one count of conspiring to deliver meth.
Clair McFarland can be reached at clair@cowboystatedaily.com.
