Two individuals, including a former corrections officer, found themselves in handcuffs after a routine traffic stop by Cottonwood Police unraveled into a significant drug bust.
On the evening of January 15, former Arizona Department of Corrections officer Deanna Epperson-Fleming, 47, and Ryan Michael Epperson, 25, were arrested and charged with various drug-related offenses, the list of charges themselves stretching like a desert highway: possession of narcotics, dangerous drugs for sale and the illegal carry of a firearm during a drug offense among them, these details emerging from reports by FOX 10 Phoenix and Verde News.
The bust occurred near the intersection of Main Street and State Route 260 when officers, conducting a 9:35 p.m. traffic stop, noticed items that "raised suspicions of illegal activity" which led to a probable-cause search, the cache siezed from the vehicle notably included over a thousand fentanyl pills, more than 15 grams of meth, and assorted other drugs, testosterones being not the least among them, as noted in the Cottonwood Police Department's statement.
According to the Cottonwood Police, the arrests of Epperson-Fleming, the passenger, and Epperson, the driver, the department's stance on drug prohibition and its dedication to community safety, Cementing this resolve is the force's intention to ramp up its K-9 narcotics division in the fight against the drug trade, "The Cottonwood Police Department remains vigilant and will continue to enforce a zero-tolerance policy on the use and sale of illegal drugs, not only in Cottonwood but throughout the entire Verde Valley," according the department's press release, as
