Two Arrested In A Drug Seizure On I-17 Saturday Near Camp Verde

Two people were arrested after Cottonwood Police seized five pounds of meth and five-an-a-half pounds of fentanyl pills during a traffic stop on Interstate-17 Saturday afternoon. Officers stopped a black 2008 Audi four door sedan for having illegally dark tinted windows on northbound I-17 at around 12:15 p.m. During the stop the driver, 27-year-old Jose Alfredo Soto-Vega of Phoenix, didn’t have a valid driver’s license. The officer sensed there may be drugs in the car, so K9 Kratos was used to free air sniff the vehicle. After Kratos alerted officers, a probable cause search was done and officers found the illegal drugs that have a street value of between $600-and-$800-thousand. Soto-Vega and the passenger, 29-year-old Stephanie Avalos of Phoenix, were arrested and booked into the Yavapai County Detention Center on several felonies related to the discovery. Cottonwood Police were part of a highway interdiction with other law enforcement agencies when the stop was made.