Two men were arrested by Phelps County deputies Thursday afternoon after 1,213 pounds of suspected marijuana was found hidden in a false compartment of their trailer that was loaded with construction tools and supplies.
The driver, Raudel Galvez, 38, of Springdale, Ark., and his passenger, Israel G. Valdez, 29, of Sinora, Mexico, were both booked into the Phelps County Jail where they were slated to be released to federal agents from the Drug Enforcement Administration Lambert Task Force.
PCSD deputies Christian Butler and Mark Wynn discovered the suspected marijuana after Wynn’s K-9 partner, “Idol” (pronounced E-dul) gave a positive alert on the trailer.
According to Wynn, the white, Dodge 3500 pickup truck and trailer was stopped on Interstate 44 near mile marker 174 after deputies observed the driver failing to use turn signals.
After Idol alerted deputies to the smell of suspected narcotics, the driver of the truck, Galvez, gave his consent to the deputies to search the box trailer.
The street value of 1,212 pounds of marijuana is approximately $1.2 million, and Wynn explained the construction materials were considered a “cover load,” or simply a ruse intended to obfuscate the real cargo.
Idol, who has been handled by Wynn for three years, has been responsible for hundreds of arrests associated with narcotics, he said.
“We don’t really talk about percentages of ‘hits’ by dogs,” explained Wynn when he was asked how reliable Idol’s alerts had proved to be.
“These dogs are trained to alert to the presence of the ‘odor’ of narcotics. Right now, with the odor of narcotics still in the truck, even after the marijuana was removed from the trailer, another dog would make a hit on the trailer because the odor is still there,” Wynn explained.
“We have three dogs in Phelps County — two in the Sheriff’s Department and one in the Rolla Police Department. All three dogs are certified once a year, and all the dogs pass with locating 100 percent of the narcotic ‘hides.’”
Wynn explained the dogs were tested for “hides” in four areas: vehicles, rooms, lockers and exterior open spaces.