Trio charged with money laundering after troopers find wads of cash during traffic stop in Iron County

A state trooper in Southern Utah, Nov. 21, 2019 | Photo courtesy of the Utah Highway Patrol, St. George News

CEDAR CITY — A traffic stop in Iron County on Saturday resulted in the arrest of all three of the vehicle’s occupants, including a passenger who had just completed a four-year stint in prison two days earlier.

Booked into Iron County Jail early Sunday morning were California residents, Marquel Taylor Abraham, 23, Robert Anthony Ramos, 28, and Nathan Mark Gonzales, 23. 

According to the probable cause statements filed in support of the trio’s arrests, a Utah Highway Patrol trooper pulled over the rental car they were riding in on southbound Interstate 15 shortly before 6 p.m. Saturday. The car’s driver had been observed following another vehicle too closely, which prompted the trooper to initiate the stop, the affidavit states.

During the traffic stop, Abraham, who had been driving, said he had a bag of marijuana in his pocket but did not possess a valid medical marijuana card, the arresting trooper wrote.

Meanwhile, Gonzales, the front-seat passenger, initially provided the officer with someone else’s name when asked to identify himself, the charging documents allege, adding that he also had a wad of cash on his person that was later found to contain more than $19,000 in currency.

Gonzales, who had a drug warrant in his name out of California, was also found to be in possession of a bottle of prescription medication that he had taken from his mother, the charging documents allege.

Lastly, the passenger in the rear seat, identified as Ramos, had “a stack of currency in his pocket which was seven rubber-banded stacks of $20 bills divided into $1,000 each,” the affidavit states.

When asked about the $7,000 cash he was carrying, Ramos reportedly told the officers that he was not employed and had just been released from prison two days prior, after serving a four-year term.

Police say that Ramos’s extensive criminal history includes burglary, fleeing, vehicle theft, drug trafficking, and other charges. He also is on parole and did not have permission to leave California.

Investigators also looked at the cell phones found inside the vehicle and found evidence of narcotics distribution, illegal firearms possession and large amounts of currency being displayed, the report states.

“These pictures and messages, along with interviews of the subjects, provided substantial evidence that the currency was proceeds of illegal activities,” the affidavit states.

As of Tuesday afternoon, all three men continue to be held without bail in Iron County Jail, where each faces one count of money laundering, a second-degree felony. Additionally, both Abraham and Gonzales face charges of possession of a controlled substance, a class B misdemeanor.

Gonzales also faces one count of providing false identification, a class A misdemeanor, while Abraham has been charged with following another vehicle too closely, an infraction.

The three men each made their initial court appearance on Tuesday before 5th District Judge Ann Marie McIff Allen, who set a Jan. 31 date for their detention hearings.

This report is based on statements from court documents and law enforcement officials and may not contain the full scope of findings. Persons arrested or charged are presumed innocent until found guilty in a court of law or as otherwise decided by a trier-of-fact.

Copyright St. George News, SaintGeorgeUtah.com LLC, 2022, all rights reserved.

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