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Illegal alien caught with meth
By Jon Johnson, Staff Writer
A routine traffic stop led Safford Police to discover more than 40 grams of crystal methamphetamine at the Days Inn early Saturday morning.

Officer Herschel Medlin’s patrol car was cut off by a black four-door vehicle that went directly from the right lane into the center turn lane before turning into the Days Inn parking lot. The driver gave the police a Mexican identification card that stated his name as Jesus Diaz Beltran. The passenger had no identification on her but gave her name as Marlene Contreras.


Officer Medlin received permission to search Contreras’ purse and found the tops of two heat-sealed plastic baggies. According to officer Medlin, these kind of baggies are used in packaging illegal drugs. Contreras denied any knowledge of the baggies and consented to have her motel room searched.

Police encountered two more people in the room, an undocumented male alien named Cesar Lozano and a female, Joanna Ybarra.

Officer Medlin found a duffel bag belonging to Marlene Contreras with a digital scale and a large quantity of what appeared to be either “crack” cocaine or meth. All of the parties denied ownership of the drugs.

Ybarra then asked to speak to the officers alone and told them that the drugs belonged to Beltran. Ybarra also stated that she was afraid to tell the police because Beltran was a killer who was “connected.”

After initially denying the accusations, Beltran admitted the meth was his. He told police he had purchased more than an ounce and a half of the drug in Phoenix for $1,000 and planned to sell it in Safford.

Police arrested Beltran for possession of a dangerous drug for sale and possession of drug paraphernalia and booked him into the Graham County Jail.

Lozano was transported to the Graham County Jail and then turned over to the Border Patrol.