Two Bend traffic stops lead to drugs, guns, 3 arrests

Two unrelated overnight traffic stops on the north side of Bend led to the call-out of at a Bend drug-detection dog and three arrests on drug possession and other charges, police said Thursday.

In the first incident, a Bend man allegedly resisted arrest and fought with officers, while two residents were charged with illegal possession of firearms in the second.

Around 10:25 p.m. Wednesday, a Bend police sergeant stopped a vehicle at NE Fourth Street and Lafayette Avenue for a traffic violation (failure to obey a traffic control device), said Sgt. Ron Taylor.

The driver, identified as Cecil Archie Turner Sr., 30, of Bend, “immediately became fidgety and nervous,” Taylor wrote in a news release.

A Bend police K-9 team was called to assist, and K-9 Zoey, a drug detection dog, conducted a “free air sniff” of the vehicle’s exterior, alerting to the presence of an odor of illegal drugs, Taylor said.

A search of the car turned up a trace amount of suspected methamphetamine, the sergeant said.

Turner was detained in handcuffs, but “fought with officers to prevent a search of his person,” Taylor said. When officers finally were able to search him, nearly a half-ounce of suspected meth was found in a pocket of his clothes.

Turner was lodged at the Deschutes County Jail on charges of drug possession, manufacture and distribution, along with resisting arrest and interfering with a police officer.

Around 2:20 a.m. Thursday, a Bend police corporal stopped a vehicle on NW Colorado Avenue near the Bend Parkway, also for traffic violations, Taylor said.

The officers became suspicious of the way the car’s three occupants were acting, and again Zoey was called in, and alerted on the presence of an odor of illegal drugs.

As officers prepared to search the vehicle, one passenger, identified as Kriston Le Jones, 29, of Bend, “became extremely nervous and started making furtive movements,” Taylor wrote.

As the corporal went to detain him, Jones admitted having a gun hidden in his waistband, the sergeant said. A .40 caliber semiautomatic Smith and Wesson handgun was found in his waistband, and a 40. Caliber semiautomatic Glock handgun was found in his backpack, the officer said. Jones is a convicted felon and prohibited from possessing firearms.

A further search of the car found a .380 caliber Ruger semiautomatic handgun hidden in the driver’s side door panel, Taylor said. The gun was “readily accessible” to the driver, Zlatina Ivanova Velikova, 28, of Bend, Taylor said.

A trace amount of suspected methamphetamine was found in the vehicle, the officer said.

Jones and Velikova were taken to the Bend jail, where Jones was held on $15,000 bail on two counts of felon in possession of a weapon, unlawful possession of a firearm and drug possession. Velikova was charged with unlawful possession of a firearm and released on her own recognizance, jail officers said.