Grand Grab

Grand grab

Police acting on anonymous tip seize meth, cash and handgun; arrest man Monday morning

By Cassidy Friedman
Times-News writer

TWIN FALLS – A whopping 2.8 pounds.

That’s how much methamphetamine Twin Falls police recovered early Monday morning, along with a handgun and about $1,900 cash – all thanks to an anonymous tip and a K-9 unit.

And that’s the chunk of methamphetamine that won’t be making its way into Magic Valley needles and pipes this week.

The street value – cut included – is at least $100,000, said Twin Falls police Sgt. Terry Thueson. Meth sells in the Magic Valley for $15,000 to $18,000 a pound, Thueson said.

Arrested and charged with trafficking methamphetamine is 42-year-old Jorge Naverrete-Sanchez of Twin Falls, who was driving a 1993 Jeep Wrangler with its top down and a license plate that matched the one given by the anonymous tipster.

Twin Falls Police Officer Kevin Loosi stopped Naverette-Sanchez for failing to signal about 1 a.m. Monday. But even before pulling Naverette-Sanchez over, Loosi pegged the Jeep as the vehicle he had heard about on the police bulletin. The K-9 was all the evidence Loosi needed to prove his conviction was right.

Naverette-Sanchez told police he had driven in from California Sunday evening. Police released his son, who was riding with him in the Wrangler, into his mother’s custody.

“We believe that he came through Nevada coming from California,” Thueson said.

Almost 90 percent of meth in the Magic Valley is imported from Mexico via U.S. 93, Idaho State Police Lt. Dan Thornton told a group of addiction specialists at a recent workshop in Twin Falls.

The majority of meth traffickers carry anywhere between several pounds and 40 pounds from Mexico, Rick Jensen, an intelligence analyst with the Ada Metro Narcotics Unit, told the Times-News after the workshop. Naverette-Sanchez’s haul may fit in the lower end of a major shipment bracket.

Cassidy Friedman covers crime and courts for the Times-News. He can be reached at (208)735-3241 or cfriedman@magicvalley.com.