ST. GEORGE – A St. George man was arrested by the Washington County Drug Task Force on drug and weapons charges on Wednesday
The task force had been issued a search warrant for parts of 22-year-old Helaman Tuitavuki’s residence. Tuitavuki’s name was also attached to the warrant, which was expressly issued for the room the man lived in and the common areas of the residence, St. George Police Department Capt. Kyle Whitehead said.
The task force made contact with Tuitavuki after he left the residence and executed the search warrant, searching his person as well as his room. The search turned up a substance alleged to be a distributable amount of heroin, as well as a firearm and drug paraphernalia. Whitehead said Tuitavuki made admissions to task force detectives linking him to the suspected heroin.
Tuitavuki was arrested and booked into the Washington County Purgatory Correctional Facility on a first-degree felony charge for drug distribution, a third-degree felony for possession of a firearm by a restricted person and a class-A misdemeanor for drug paraphernalia. Bail is currently set at $20,000. Whitehead said the drug distribution charge was enhanced because Tuitavuki was within 1,000 feet of a school.
Ed. note: Persons charged are presumed innocent until found guilty in a court of law or as otherwise decided by a trier-of-fact.
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