Two Calaveras County Incidents Involving Possible Fentanyl
Calaveras County, CA — A total of three people were arrested in two separate drug busts in one day in Calaveras County.
The first incident took place around 1:15 a.m. on Sunday, when patrolling Calaveras Sheriff’s deputies found two people asleep in a vehicle behind the Starbucks in Valley Springs, off Highway 12. Deputies observed that the passenger, 36-year-old Ezra Phillip Land of Mokelumne Hill, had an “open box of drug paraphernalia in his lap,” according to sheriff’s officials.
Deputies woke up Land and the driver, 22-year-old Amber Rose Strano, from Avery. A search of the vehicle uncovered suspected Fentanyl, Xanax pills and methamphetamine. Deputies also found more drug paraphernalia, including smoking pipes and multiple syringes. According to sheriff’s officials, a field sobriety test on both suspects determined they were under the influence of narcotics. They were arrested on related drug charges.
That same morning around 8:40 a.m. in San Andreas, another patrolling deputy recognized, 31-year-old Christopher Wayne Clements of Arnold, who had a warrant out for his arrest, walking in the 100 block of West Saint Charles Street. Clements was taken into custody without incident.
During a search of his person, deputies pulled about seven grams of suspected fentanyl from his shirt pocket and two shotgun shells from his pants pocket. In his backpack, deputies also discovered a loaded short-barrel shotgun, a high-capacity magazine, blasting caps attached to a small bag, and three social security cards with different names. Clements was arrested for carrying a concealed weapon, a loaded firearm in public, and being a prohibited person from having a weapon, along with drug-related charges.
Sheriff’s spokesperson Lt. Greg Stark detailed how the suspected fentanyl was handled by deputies, stating that it was “safely packaged and taken to the sheriff’s office for placement into a secure evidence holding area designed to reduce the risk of exposure to sheriff’s office employees.” He added, “In the coming days, specially trained deputies will conduct formal testing to confirm the suspected substance.”
