YOUR AD HERE »

Authorities report two separate drug arrests in Aspen

Andre Salvail
The Aspen Times
Jose Eduardo Alvarez-Vasquez

A motorist was arrested during a routine traffic stop Saturday night after presenting a cocaine-encrusted driver’s license to a Pitkin County sheriff’s deputy, authorities said.

A subsequent search of the vehicle’s back seat revealed a plastic bag containing more than three grams of powder cocaine, which apparently belonged to the motorist, Jose Eduardo Alvarez-Vazquez, 27, according to a Sheriff’s Office affidavit written by Deputy Levi Borst.

Borst provided assistance at the scene of the traffic stop initially conducted by Deputy Ryan Turner in the 500 block of Main Street.



“Turner was working a dedicated DUI overtime shift,” the report said, when at 11:16 p.m. he pulled over a driver who failed to yield to a pedestrian.

The driver presented deputies with a Guadalejara, Mexico, driver’s license identifying him as Eduardo Alvarez Vazquez, born in May 1989. The license was laminated and had an official look to it, the affidavit said.




The white, powdery substance on the driver’s license and in the bag tested positive for cocaine in a field test, the report said.

At the jail, Alvarez-Vazquez told deputies that he had given them false identification, along with a fake name and date of birth because he resides in the country illegally, Borst wrote.

Deputies also discovered that Alvarez-Vasquez had an outstanding warrant for his arrest in Pitkin County for failing to appear in court for a traffic offense, the affidavit said.

Alvarez-Vasquez faces two felonies, one for unlawful possession of a controlled substance (cocaine) and the other for criminal impersonation, according to the report. He gained release from the Pitkin County Jail after posting $5,000 bond.

SECOND DRUG ARREST

Ashley Marie Apger, 26, of Aspen, was arrested Sunday evening by Aspen police after an investigation showed that she had tried to refill her prescription illegally at Carl’s Pharmacy.

Apger faces a felony drug count related to fraud and deceit. She has been released from the Pitkin County Jail on a personal-recognizance bond.

Aspen policeman Forrest Barnett said in an arrest affidavit that at 5:27 p.m. Sunday, the department was notified of a “forgery in progress” at the pharmacy.

Barnett responded with two other officers. They encountered the suspect, later identified as Apger, and a pharmacist who told them that Apger provided them with a prescription for Norco from a local doctor. Norco is a combination of acetaminophen and hydrocodone, a narcotic used to treat moderate to severe pain.

The prescription put the number of refills at three, but the figure was written “in a different handwriting than the other writing on the prescription,” the affidavit said.

An Aspen Valley Hospital physician confirmed with the pharmacist and police that he had not written a “three” in the refills line of the prescription, Barnett wrote.

andre@aspentimes.com

News


See more