Carson City Special Enforcement Team Deputies bust teenage drug ring, arrest 23-year-old for contributing to minors

A 23-year-old Carson City man was arrested in the area of Highway 50 E and I 580 for felony conspiracy to violate UCS, child endangerment, contributing to the delinquency of a minor, and non-functioning brake lights.

According to the arrest report, Special Enforcement Team Deputies arrested Leonel Vasquez after they were conducting surveillance on a known drug location in E. Carson City with other members of the drug task force, SET and TRINET.

Dispatch advised that a sedan had entered the parking lot of a grocery store and stopped, and shortly after another vehicle entered the parking lot and pulled up alongside the sedan.

A female juvenile exited the vehicle and spoke with the male driver of the sedan, and there was a brief exchange before the female juvenile got back into the jeep which was driven by an adult male.

Deputies watched as the vehicle drove north onto Airport Road, and observed it had a non-functioning left side brake light.

Deputies stopped the vehicle and spoke to the occupants. The female juvenile was in the passenger seat and appeared very nervous, wouldn’t make eye contact, and would break off mid sentence while answering deputies questions to look at the floor.

The juvenile said she had not met anyone in the parking lot of the grocery store, and at first denied there was any meeting at all. Then she admitted she met with someone, and that she was giving him money which she owed him.

K-9 Deputy Ivo was dispatched to the scene, who conducted a free air sniff around the vehicle. Ivo alerted to the presence of drug odor at the driver’s side.

Inside the vehicle, deputies located two concentrated cannabis cartridges for a vape pen in the passenger glove box where the juvenile had been seated.

She agreed to speak to deputies without a parent present. She stated that her boyfriend, Vasquez, who is 23, provided the cannabis cartridges. She said Vasquez wanted the cartridges because the juvenile could get them cheaper through the “black market” than through the dispensaries.

She admitted she had texted a friend to purchase the cartridges at Vasquez’s request.

Deputies viewed the text messages sent through Snapchat, in which she asked for strawberry banana and orange Kush flavors, and that she agreed to buy two cartridges for $80.

The person she bought them from is another high school student.

Vasquez admitted that the cartridges were purchased for him at his request, and they were purchased on “the street” because they were more expensive in the dispensary.

Deputies stopped the other car that they had purchased the cartridges from, which was driven by a male juvenile. The male juvenile is sixteen-years-old and was wearing an ankle-monitor for a previous drug case. Deputies located several prescription pills, cash and controlled substances in his vehicle.

Through school records, deputies located the juvenile “dealer” the female juvenile had been speaking with via Snapchat and went to his house.

His mother told deputies she had caught him smoking marijuana in the past and allowed deputies to speak with him.

He told deputies that the female juvenile had contacted him and wanted to buy concentrated cannabis. He admitted to setting up the deal with the other juvenile male in the sedan.

On his phone, which deputies looked at with his parent’s consent, they found several other videos advertising drugs.

He told deputies that he has arranged several types of drug deals for the other juvenile male in the past, and that the additional drug-related items found in the Snapchat videos were most likely at the other juvenile’s home.

All parties were taken into custody without issue.

Bail for Vasquez: $23,224

All information for the crime log (unless otherwise noted) comes from the arrest reports supplied by the Carson City Sheriff's Office, and is considered by law to be public information. All subjects are innocent until proven guilty in a court of law. The policy of Carson Now is to name anyone who is arrested for a felony offense.

— A 64-year-old transient man was arrested in the 800 block of N. Carson Street for loitering where children congregate.

Deputies were dispatched to a local youth museum on the report of an intoxicated subject who was sleeping on a bench on the property.

Deputies arrived on scene and found the man slouched over, sitting on a bench on the north side of the museum, with approximately six tall cans of empty beer on the ground.

When deputies approached the man, he appeared to wake up and when asked what he was doing, he said he was resting on the bench.

Deputies immediately smelled the overwhelming odor of an unknown alcoholic beverage emanating from his person, according to the arrest report. His eyes were bloodshot and glossy and his speech was thick, slow and heavy.

Deputies asked how much he had had to drink and he said none. Deputies asked when he had last had a drink and he said the night before.

He said he did not want to be in trouble in front of the children at the museum. He consented to a preliminary breath test which resulted in a .284 BAC.

Deputies asked if he could stand and he said he wasn’t sure. When he stood, he nearly fell over. As he struggled, deputies noted multiple children walking from the parking lot into the museum approximately 20 yards away.

Deputies decided to take him into custody for loitering where children congregate.

Bail: $637

— A 43-year-old transient man was arrested in the 400 block of N. Carson Street for obstructing an officer, resisting an officer, and a DAS violation after deputies were attempting to investigate him for a robbery and he began to fight them.

Bail: $3,824; $3,000 cash only