ST. GEORGE — Two people were arrested Wednesday after a large-scale illicit drug distribution operation was discovered by agents who had searched a Washington City residence.

Washington County Drug Task Force agents served a warrant on the home and asked the occupants — Nathaniel Colt Albrecht, 48, and Melinda Lark Albrecht, 54 — to exit and were detained nearby.

According to the affidavits filed in support of the arrests, officers located a large metal safe in the garage that had a digital passcode. Nathaniel Albrecht provided the code to agents, saying the couple had recently started a church and that sacrament-related items were being stored inside the safe. 

Agents opened the safe and found 15 one-gallon plastic bins that contained what appeared to be dried psilocybin mushrooms. Each of the bins was labeled to identify the strain of the mushrooms. 

They also recovered multiple plastic bins containing suspected marijuana, along with “a distributable amount” of MDMA, a hallucinogen, the report states, along with suspected ketamine. The substances were reportedly packaged in plastic baggies consistent with street-level sales. 

The report also states that several bottles filled with a liquid substance later identified as LSD were recovered from the safe. 

In the garage, agents found cloth bags in various colors used for packaging, along with tin containers and other shipping materials. A “drug identification board” that listed the name and quantity of each drug that was to be placed in a corresponding colored bag. The board listed the names of each of the six substances including DMT, Ketamine, MDMA and so on. 

Inside the residence, detectives located a closet secured with a digital locking mechanism and inside found a number of plastic bins containing prepackaged substances that appeared to be ready for shipment, along with a computer and printer for shipping labels.

 Inside the kitchen, detectives located several scales, including a few that still had capsules on the metal trays, as well as grinders, pipes and other paraphernalia-related items. They also recovered multiple tin containers with various controlled substances inside and each was labeled with the name of the substance. 

The evidence collected from the home reportedly implicated both suspects in the illicit drug operation, according to the report.

Both asked for an attorney soon after agents arrived and the pair declined to talk to police. Following the search, both suspects were arrested and transported to Purgatory Correctional Facility each facing four second-degree felony counts of possession with intent to distribute a controlled substance and two third-degree felony counts of the same charge. They also face one misdemeanor possession of paraphernalia charge.

On Thursday, the charges were filed by the Washington County Attorney’s Office and both remain in jail on $20,000 bail. 

This report is based on statements from court records, police or other responders and may not contain the full scope of findings. Persons arrested or charged are presumed innocent until found guilty in a court of law or as otherwise decided by a trier-of-fact.

Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2024, all rights reserved.

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