Traffic stop leads to felony drug arrest of wanted man

IDAHO FALLS, Idaho (KIFI) – Shortly before 6:00 p.m. Saturday, an Idaho Falls Police Officer conducted a traffic stop on a vehicle for not having a front license plate in the area of 13th Street and Oak Street.

When the officer made contact with the driver, he noted the driver, Joseph Flores, appeared to be excessively nervous and had difficulty answering the basic questions.

After running his drivers license information, dispatch advised the officer Flores had an active warrant for his arrest from Bingham County. The officer detained the driver at that time and had him exit the vehicle.

A search of the Flores’ person yielded drug paraphernalia, a small amount of marijuana, two pills identified as fentanyl, a coin sized amount of a dark substance identified as heroin and a container with a white crystallized substance identified as methamphetamine.

Officers conducted a search of Flores’ vehicle and located a backpack that contained a golf ball sized amount of a brown tar substance identified as heroin, a baggie containing a fine white powder identified as cocaine, and 143 pills believed to be fentanyl. Two firearms and $553 in cash were also found in the vehicle and on Flores’ person.

The various substances were each tested with respective presumptive positives for heroin, methamphetamine, cocaine, and marijuana. The pills believed to be fentanyl were packaged and sent to the Idaho State Lab for testing. The total weight of the illegal substances located is as follows:

• 42.85 grams of heroin
• 22.35 grams of methamphetamine
• 3.95 grams of cocaine
• .7 grams marijuana
• 145 fentanyl pills

Joseph Flores, a 26-year-old Bonneville County resident, was arrested for a Bingham County Felony Bench Warrant, felony drug trafficking (heroin), felony possession of a controlled substance with intent to deliver (methamphetamine), felony possession of a controlled substance with intent to deliver (cocaine), felony possession of a controlled substance with intent to deliver (fentanyl), misdemeanor possession of marijuana, misdemeanor possession of paraphernalia.

Flores was taken to the Bonneville County Jail.