Two police officers from Kane County on June 20 stopped a caravan of three vehicles, each with a single driver. Upon a search of the cars, officers found methamphetamine, marijuana, firearms and cash.

Court documents say the one female and two male drivers were moving drugs and cash for two West Valley City men. The drivers told police they were part of an effort to move cash out of the United States as payment for some drugs, which they had planned to pick up and return to the Salt Lake City area.

One car held $49,000 and a stolen firearm. The driver said she was being paid $3,000 to deliver the cash to Tucson, Ariz. The second car contained a large bag that smelled strongly of marijuana along with two handguns and two rifles. The driver told police the cash and guns were payment for a prior drug shipment from Sonora, Mexico.

The driver of the third car told police he was overseeing the delivery.

The drivers gave officers names of two men, saying they were the source of the trafficking. Upon a search of that pair's house, agents found rounds of ammunition and what they called "extensive evidence of drug distribution including a scale, packaging materials, and pay/owe sheets."

The group - who were living in West Valley City, Kearns and Salt Lake City - could get as much as a life sentence and $4 million fine for meth distribution. Marijuana distribution could earn them 20 years and a $1 million fine, and they could get as many as five years and $250,000 for cash smuggling, 10 years for illegally possessing firearms and five years for use of a firearm in connection with a drug trafficking crime.

sgehrke@sltrib.com