Speeding stop turns into drug bust on I-70 near Green River

GREEN RIVER — A speeding ticket turned into a large drug bust earlier this week after troopers found nearly $500,000 worth of methamphetamines inside a car.

Just before 9 a.m. Tuesday, Utah Highway Patrol troopers stopped a 30-year-old California man for speeding on Interstate 70. After the driver consented to a search of the vehicle, troopers found 19 pounds of methamphetamines, police said.

The man was booked into the Emery County Jail, where he awaits federal charges.

The bust came just a day after Garfield County law enforcement notched a victory of its own against meth — the conviction of a Panguitch man on seven first-degree felony drug charges, a number officials called "unprecedented" for the southern Utah county.

Jurors deliberated for two hours Wednesday before reaching a guilty verdict for Mark Talbot, 46. Talbot was arrested last spring after he was found with crystal meth and marijuana just a few hundred feet from a preschool, according to the Garfield County Attorney's Office.

Talbot was arrested for possession and distribution of meth twice more before seeing trial, officials said.

He will be sentenced on a total of 12 drug convictions in August.