Five arrested Tuesday by drug task force

ST. GEORGE – The Washington County Drug Task Force arrested five men on multiple drug and other charges Tuesday in two unrelated incidents.

Tuesday evening, detectives with the task force conducted a traffic stop on northbound Interstate 15 at mile post 3. A search warrant had been issued for the car involved and the people inside it, St. George Police Capt. Kyle Whitehead said.

Four men were in the car, which included driver Jeffery Worthington, 52, of St. George, and passengers Winston Stanley, 20, of Washington City, John Palmerson, 37, and Shannon Jordan, 32, both of St. George.

A search of the car and the individuals involved produced distributable amounts of methamphetamine and associated drug paraphernalia. Substances believed to be heroin and prescription drugs were also found, Whitehead said.

Based on statements made by Worthington during a police interview, he knowingly drove the others to Las Vegas for the purpose of buying methamphetamine. He also indicated that he would be compensated for taking the men to Las Vegas, Whitehead said.

The four men were arrested and taken to the Washington County Purgatory Correctional Facility.

Worthington was charged with a third-degree felony for conspiracy to possess and distribute methamphetamine, as well as two previous warrants.

Jordan was charged with second-degree felony drug distribution and third-degree felony drug possession, as well as a class-B misdemeanor for drug paraphernalia.

Palmerson was charged with two second-degree felonies for drug distribution and a class-B misdemeanor for drug paraphernalia.

Winston was charged with third-degree felony drug possession and a class-B misdemeanor for drug paraphernalia.

In an unrelated incident in Washington City earlier that day, a resident on Graham Manor Street was also the subject of a search warrant by the task force.

James Portwood, of Washington City, was arrested after task force detectives executed the warrant and found what was described as a large amount of marijuana in individually packaged bags, Whitehead said. According to a probable cause statement, paraphernalia included glass pipes and a scale allegedly used for weighing the bags. Detectives also found a .22 caliber rifle underneath Portwood’s bed.

Portwood was taken to the Purgatory Correctional Facility and charged with two third-degree felonies, one for drug distribution and the other for possession of a weapon by a restricted person. He was also charged with a class-B misdemeanor.

Persons arrested or charged are presumed innocent until found guilty in a court of law or as otherwise decided by a trier-of-fact.

Email: [email protected]

Twitter: @MoriKessler

Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2014, all rights reserved.

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9 Comments

  • Rick February 5, 2014 at 8:28 pm

    I wish to compliment our drug enforcement officers on the fine job they are doing to rid our streets of this plague. Great job guys. True local heros.

  • ladybugavenger February 5, 2014 at 10:54 pm

    That’s great Rick! However, do you realize that most the people the drug task force arrest are repeat offenders? .its not that hard to watch people that get released from jail. Since most of them go back to their previous habits. And then in the mix you get a few new ones. So they will get some new arrests, therefore, more people to watch and that will result in more repeat offenders. Its a cycle. I mean its simple. Its not that difficult to find the drugs, its users and its dealers. The difficult part is stopping them!

  • ladybugavenger February 6, 2014 at 12:09 am

    and in the case of the people arrested in the article, almost all are not only repeat offenders but threepeat offenders with cases still pending. There is definitely something broken in the system. Perhaps its not the WDTF where the system is broke and if thats the case then they share the same frustrations. If not, then they are part of the problem.

    • Joelle Mickelson February 6, 2014 at 7:13 am

      Something broken?? So you’re saying you don’t want repeat offenders to go to PRISON instead of jail? That is part of what is trying to be accomplished here. And of course most of the people they arrest are repeat offenders! How do you expect them to catch drug users who’ve never done so before? I’d love to hear! The job they’re doing is putting people in PRISON. This doesn’t happen overnight. Show some gratitude for the job they’re doing, or get off your ass and try to do a better job.

      • ladybugavenger February 6, 2014 at 8:56 pm

        No Joelle, you may have misunderstood. I did not say repeat offenders should not go to jail. I’m saying they get out of jail too quickly. Thats whats broken. So you Joelle can go on your rant. When a drug dealer has been arrested 3 different times in a year and arrested again this year and the three court cases for last year have not been adjudicated ( as in 2 of the suspects cases here)there is a break in the system. Thats my child they are putting in danger. If you dont believe the system is broken then I am truly sorry for your ignorance.

        • ladybugavenger February 7, 2014 at 12:54 pm

          Also, while you are waiting for these people to get an X amount of arrests so you can send them to prison, another child is getting hooked on meth and heroin by the same people that were arrested 3 times already. If your child was one of those children getting meth from one of these dealers maybe you would not have such patience to let them deal drugs for at least a year so you can send them to prison. Because the next person getting hooked on meth or heroin was my child. And I went to the police and I gave them the dealers location over a year ago. And told them about the pregnant girl doing meth…And nothing happened to them. They did nothing to help my son. The only that happened, happened to me – my son, just turned 19 at the time, moved to a bigger place with more drugs (Las Vegas) and I have not seen my son since June 3, 2013. And I saw my sons name on the clark county bookings, guess what for? Possession of Meth, and grand larceny…So Joelle, Don’t say I don’t want them all arrested, I want them all in jail. But that’s not reality.

          Am I bitter, of course, once again I go to the police and no consequences happen to the criminals. The dealers could have been arrested, but they weren’t….

          And my son became another victim of meth. It took his soul.

          So Joelle, go back on your horse and ride away.

  • JOSH DALTON February 6, 2014 at 8:10 am

    JUST SAY NO TO DRUGS! Good work DTF! Just don’t get to cocky. Lets learn from our brothers up in West Valley. Keep these arrest honest and validated!

  • Coffeelarge February 6, 2014 at 11:43 am

    LOSER ADDICTS!! Get this crap out of our community.

  • DvegaValleyKid15 May 25, 2014 at 3:21 am

    Please enlighten me on the ‘West Valley’ situation. .

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