A traffic stop on a southern Utah highway led to a fentanyl seizure after a San Juan County Sheriff's deputy pulled over 23-year-old Hector Luis Castillo-Reyes and a K-9 alerted to drugs hidden in his vehicle's toolbox. Inside were roughly 23 pounds of fentanyl, equivalent to about 104,000 pills, that prosecutors say Castillo-Reyes had agreed to transport for payment. On Wednesday, he was sentenced to 41 months in federal prison.
Castillo-Reyes was sentenced, according to the United States Department of Justice, following Castillo-Reyes's guilty plea to possession of fentanyl with intent to distribute on July 20. As KSL News reports, Castillo-Reyes was living illegally in Fresno, California, at the time of the August 2025 traffic stop, and he admitted in a motion for detention to picking up a bag of drugs and driving them north for payment. He was also ordered to serve three years of supervised release once his prison term ends.
A Multi-Agency Case Built on a Rural Stop
The investigation that followed the traffic stop pulled in far more than local deputies. The Drug Enforcement Administration, the Utah Department of Public Safety State Bureau of Investigation and the San Juan County Sheriff's Office worked the case jointly, with support from the Bureau of Indian Affairs and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, per the Department of Justice. The case was initially indicted under Operation Take Back America, a Department of Justice initiative that pools Organized Crime Drug Enforcement Task Forces and Project Safe Neighborhoods resources to target cartel-linked trafficking networks nationwide, the agency notes.
Melissa Holyoak, U.S. Attorney for the District of Utah, said the case demonstrated coordination among state, federal and tribal partners working to pull fentanyl off Utah streets, according to the same account. Once Castillo-Reyes completes his prison sentence, he will be turned over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement for deportation, according to court documents cited by the outlet.
U.S. Route 191 Through San Juan County
San Juan County, in the far southeastern corner of the state, sits along U.S. Route 191, which runs from the Arizona border to Interstate 70.
The seizure involved roughly 104,000 fentanyl pills
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Fentanyl's Toll on Utah Keeps Climbing
The bust lands against a grim backdrop of overdose data statewide. Utah recorded a record 606 drug overdose deaths in 2023, with fentanyl involved in 47.9% of those fatalities — a 1,160.9% increase in fentanyl-involved deaths since 2014, according to the Utah Department of Health and Human Services.
A Related Case Winding Through Salt Lake City
Federal prosecutors are pursuing a separate but related case against 32-year-old Francisco Antonio Rodriguez Raudales, who was indicted last month on drug trafficking and immigration charges. Rodriguez Raudales, who is from Honduras, was residing illegally in Salt Lake City when undercover agents conducted a controlled purchase of fentanyl from him; agents went on to recover more than 4,500 grams of fentanyl from him and his apartment, according to a federal complaint detailed in Hoodline's earlier report. Court documents say he told officers he would be paid $1,000 to deliver the drugs, and prosecutors say he had previously been removed from the United States in 2012 and 2023 — a history that exposes him to enhanced penalties under federal immigration law allowing up to 10 or 20 years in prison for illegal reentry following a prior felony removal.
Together, the two cases illustrate how federal authorities in Utah are simultaneously targeting highway transit routes and local stash houses tied to repeat immigration offenders.
