Police have arrested nine people and seized nearly $100,000 worth of cocaine, crack and marijuana in a raid on a drug ring operating out of a Layton auto repair shop.
The multiagency Davis Metro Narcotics Strike Force kept the shop under observation for several months last fall after a narcotics officer purchased illegal drugs that were delivered by a shop employee.In addition to the narcotics, agents seized two motorcycles and six cars they say were used in the drug ring. One stolen motorcycle was recovered earlier when an agent purchased it, the strike force reported.
Agents declined to identify the auto repair shop, saying the owner was unaware of the activity of the employees, and they don't want to unfairly blemish the shop's reputation.
According to the agents, they believe the major dealer in the operation is Mitchell McKinley, 25, of Kaysville. McKinley, a Utah State Prison parolee, was arrested just before Thanksgiving and has been arraigned in 2nd District Court on seven drug charges, four of them first-degree felonies.
McKinley and two of the other suspects have been returned to the prison on parole violations. Three more arrests are pending, according to the strike force.
The others arrested are from Davis and Weber counties and include three Ogden women, ages 31, 32 and 48; a 32-year-old Ogden man; three 25-year-old men from Layton, Fruit Heights, and Clearfield; and a 30-year-old Layton man.
According to agents from the strike force, purchases by undercover agents over a four-month period followed by a search of a Clearfield home netted 1.5 pounds of cocaine, 7.5 pounds of marijuana and a small amount of crack cocaine. Street value of the drugs is estmated at between $95,000 and $100,000.
After getting a hint of the extent of the drug ring's activities during an undercover purchase last fall, agents from the strike force obtained a $10,000 federal drug control grant to run a sting and surveillance operation on the repair shop.
Police set up video cameras and conducted 24-hour surveillance for more than two months.