Tracie Sullivan

tracie@thespectrum.com

CEDAR CITY – Iron County sheriff's deputies seized four pounds of crystal meth Wednesday with an estimated street value of $183,000, resulting in the arrest of two people.

"This is a lot of meth. This is huge chunks of solid crystal meth in its purest form. It's not the powder stuff. It looks like glass almost. It's what it is before drug dealers cut it with other stuff like baking soda to start distributing it out," said ICSO Deputy Wade Lee.

Steve Nie, 49, and Rubie Kearns, 26, were arrested and charged with felony possession of a controlled substance.

Lee said the charges on Kearns and Nie were enhanced to first and second-degree felonies that otherwise would have only been third-degree felonies and misdemeanors — the pair, authorities said, have criminal records.

Nie and Kearns remain in the Iron County Correctional on $30,000 bail.

Lee said Nie and Kearns were pulled over for allegedly going 94 mph in a 75 mph zone.

When he walked up to the vehicle, Lee said he didn't smell marijuana right away but as he was talking with the driver, he noticed a marijuana joint in the door handle on the passenger side.

"I asked them, 'is that weed' and they told me yes so I asked the driver to step out of the car," he said.

Lee said he searched the driver and found a container of a little bit of weed. The passenger had nothing on him, Lee said.

The duo allegedly gave the deputy conflicting stories on where they were headed. Lee said he knew then that he was looking at a "pipeline drug load."

Upon conducting an initial search Lee said he found some weed and an 8-ball of cocaine in the back of the car.

There were also some unknown pills and a small amount of methamphetamine.

About to give up searching for any more, Lee noticed the middle console in the car appeared to have been tampered with.

"It looked like the console had been taken apart or lifted up," Lee said. "So I just took my knife and flipped it up, and drugs started falling out."

Authorities use the term "pipeline" to refer to drugs carried via the interstate.

This particular load was allegedly on its way from California to Colorado, Lee said.

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