Man arrested after police find thousands of “dirty 30s” in a sock

IDAHO FALLS – A 40-year-old man was arrested after officers found thousands of fentanyl pills in a sock inside his car.

Owens Kelly was charged with felony possession of a controlled substance with intent to deliver, felony possession of a controlled substance, and resisting or obstructing officers.

On Feb. 17, an Idaho Falls Police officer contacted Kelly while he was sitting in a car behind a garage in Idaho Falls.

The officer was trying to get a hold of another man, Tommy “TJ” Jewkes, who had a felony warrant out for his arrest.

The officer reportedly believed Jewkes was at the garage.

According to the police report, Kelly was sitting in the driver’s seat with dark-tinted windows. As the officer approached the car door, he reportedly saw Kelly “lean forward with a small cup in his right hand.”

The officer said inside the cup was a small ziploc bag “commonly used to package narcotics” and another small bag “of white powder that (the officer) believed to be methamphetamine.”

Kelly then lowered the window reportedly about one inch to speak to the officer. Police reports say he “continued to make furtive movements reaching toward the floorboard where he had placed the small plastic cup.”

The officer asked Kelly to step out of the car to speak with him, but he refused and demanded the officer call the sergeant to come over to the stop.

Kelly then asked the officer if he wanted him to give him the cup that was on the floorboard and then handed it to the officer. This time, there was no baggie with any white powder in it.

The officer states in the police report, “at this point I was more convinced than ever that (Kelly) had hidden meth in the car or on his person.”

Another officer then ran a K-9 around the car, which indicated positive for the odor of narcotics. Kelly was then told by officers that they had probable cause to search the car, but Kelly still refused to leave the vehicle.

Court documents state the officers tried to convince him to get out of the car for another 15 minutes or so, and during that time, it appeared Kelly “did a factory reset on his cell phone.”

A sergeant then arrived, and the officer explained the situation to him by saying “(the officers) were now to the point where (they) could only see breaking the window and dragging (Kelly) out of the car.”

Police reports state the sergeant agreed the situation had escalated to that and asked Kelly to open the door again.

At that point, Kelly left the car and was handcuffed.

During a search of his clothing, officers reportedly found “a bag with 12 grams of meth in his front pants pocket.” Reports say officers found a sock inside the car with over 2,000 small blue pills that the officer recognized as fentanyl pills, more commonly known as “dirty 30s.”

Kelly was then transported to the Bonneville County Jail.

The reporting officer states in the police report that “the possession with intent charge is based on the enormous number of pills that (Kelly) had in his possession.”

According to court documents, a typical fentanyl user will use less than ten pills per day.

The officer also stated, “(Kelly) said he lives in California, and I believe it is likely that he was visiting Idaho to traffic the pills.”

Kelly’s initial appearance was on Feb. 21, where his bond was set to $150,000. He is scheduled to appear in court on March 7 for a preliminary hearing.

If convicted, he could face up to life in prison.