2 Idaho men arrested on suspicion of receiving meth via courier service

IDAHO FALLS – Two men were arrested after a police dog reportedly alerted officers to drugs at a courier service facility.

Virgil Wayne Rogers, 52, and Justin Dale Sanders, 42, were charged with aggravated drug trafficking in methamphetamine.

On May 29, a detective with the Teton County Sheriff’s Office told an Idaho Falls police officer that she had received a tip from police in Ontario, California, that a package containing suspected methamphetamine had been delivered to a home in Idaho Falls, court documents show.

The Idaho Falls police officer learned that a suspicious package had been shipped by air the next day from a UPS store in Victorville, California, to an address on the Shady Glen cul-de-sac in Idaho Falls.

On May 30, Idaho Falls Police were notified by UPS security that the package had arrived at the UPS depot in Idaho Falls. Several investigators from the Idaho Falls and Teton County police met at the UPS facility, where a sniffer dog sniffed the package and other packages in the facility.

The sniffer dog is said to have reacted positively to possible drugs in the suspicious package.

UPS then opened the package and found another package of canvases wrapped in bubble wrap and cellophane.

According to the police report, the constructed box contained “two vacuum-sealed bags containing a white, crystallized substance that resembled methamphetamine.”

One of the bags allegedly weighed 466 grams, the other 2,346 grams, or 5.17 pounds. After examination, the contents of both bags tested presumably positive for methamphetamine, police said.

Officers ordered UPS to deliver the package as scheduled after replacing one of the bags of methamphetamine with salt and placing a recording device inside the package.

A UPS employee met with an Idaho Falls police officer near the Idaho Falls home. According to police reports, officers saw a white pickup truck with a trailer full of gardening supplies in the driveway of the home before delivering the package.

According to court documents, they also noticed two men outside the house, later identified as Rogers and Sanders.

When the package was delivered, an officer saw Sanders pick it up and place it in the passenger seat of the pickup truck, according to police.

While listening to the tape recorder, the officer heard Sanders talking to Rogers and saying the contents could be 8 pounds, according to court documents.

Officers subsequently arrested Rogers and Sanders without incident.

During a search of Sanders, officers reportedly found a small plastic bag containing 16 grams of a white crystallized substance that resembled methamphetamine, police said. Later testing revealed that the substance tested positive for methamphetamine.

During an interview with police, Sanders said he did not know what was in the UPS package. When asked what was heard on the recording device, he said he and Rogers knew what was in the package, court documents say.

He then informed the officer that, according to police records, several packages containing narcotics were also being sent to other addresses.

According to court documents, a search of the pickup truck revealed a “small blue can containing a white crystallized substance that resembled methamphetamine” and a “homemade hookah.”

Both Sanders and Rogers were arrested and taken to the Bonneville County Jail.