Chubbuck man charged with fentanyl delivery, other crimes following service of warrant
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POCATELLO — A man police say was found in possession of more than a pound of fentanyl pills has been charged with multiple felonies.
Geoffrey William Ancheta, 39, faces felony charges for possession of fentanyl with intent to deliver, possession of methamphetamine, unlawful possession of a firearm and harboring a wanted felon, court records show. He has also been charged with a misdemeanor for possession of drug paraphernalia.
After obtaining a search warrant, members of the High-Intensity Drug Trafficking Area Badges Task Force — a multi-jurisdictional narcotics task force — performed a traffic stop on a silver 2013 Jeep Grand Cherokee registered to Ancheta on April 13, according to an affidavit of probable cause.
Officers tailed the Jeep for roughly two miles before it finally came to a stop. Due to Ancheta being a known firearms salesman and having an “extensive criminal history,” officers removed him and his passenger from the vehicle.
During his arrest, officers found Ancheta in possession of a metal tooter straw — used for ingesting drugs.
Once officers had both people detained, they performed a search of the vehicle.
During the search, officers found a glass meth pipe wedged between the driver’s seat and center console. Inside a green sling bag, they found a 9mm handgun with “several extra magazines.”
After removing the gun and magazines, the bag still felt heavy. As officers continued searching the bag, they found a second compartment, containing two zip-top baggies filled with pills believed to be fentanyl-laced, a baggie of suspected meth and a small scale.
The suspected drugs were weighed. According to police reports, there were 519.8 grams of fentanyl pills and 11.2 grams of meth.
Below the passenger seat, officers found a tooter straw and a single fentanyl pill.
Officers identified the passenger as 26-year-old Alme Otto, for whom there was an active arrest warrant on charges of probation violation.
Otto also faces felony charges for possession of fentanyl with intent to deliver, possession of meth and unlawful possession of a firearm, as well as a misdemeanor charge for possession of drug paraphernalia.
If they are found guilty, each could face up to life in prison.
Both are scheduled for preliminary hearings before Magistrate Judge Paul Laggis on Thursday.
Though Ancheta and Otto have been charged with these crimes, it does not necessarily mean they committed them. Everyone is presumed innocent until proven guilty.