A woman called for police after returning home and finding her husband allegedly using drugs with three strangers.
By Jon Johnson
SAFFORD – Those who are in the throes of drug addiction sometimes do not have good time management skills.
A woman called the police Friday, April 22, after returning home to find her husband reportedly using drugs with three individuals she did not recognize.
Officers were dispatched to the residence on S. Santa Fe Place at about 5:12 p.m. The woman then allowed the officers inside her home and gave them permission to search it.
Officers then encountered the woman’s husband, who denied anyone else being inside the residence. However, the officer soon located another male sitting on a chair behind a locked door. The officer reported the man was known to him because he recently had contact with him regarding drug activity in another case.
The male on the chair said there was nobody else in the room. However, the officer soon located two females, identified as Heather Luz and Loretta Contreras, hiding in a closet. Officers also located a glass smoking device with apparent methamphetamine residue in the closet. Both Luz and Contreras denied ownership of the meth pipe.
Contreras’ purse was searched and yielded more drug paraphernalia, including a cut straw with apparent drug residue.
Another purse was located in the room, but both subjects denied it was theirs. The purse was then deemed to be abandoned property, and the officer began to search it. At that time, Luz allegedly stated her cell phone was in the purse but that the purse belonged to another person who had already left the residence.
Inside the “abandoned” purse, an officer located plastic seals with apparent drug residue and an additional meth pipe.
The officer then advised Luz and Contreras that they would be facing pending criminal charges of possession of drug paraphernalia and the three subjects were released from the scene. Since there are no pending charges reported against the husband or the man found in the locked room, their names have not been included in this report.
The officer retrieved the drug evidence and field tested the pipes, which both indicated positive for meth use. The report was then forwarded to the Graham County Attorney’s Office for review and charging.
