A Denver man, arrested after his girlfriend was stopped by deputies on U.S. Highway 84, is wanted on a bench warrant after he was arrested in February on drug possession charges.
Rio Arriba County Sheriff’s Deputy Marcus Martinez wrote in a criminal complaint for Joshua Pults’s arrest that he went to back up another deputy on the stop. Pults, a passenger in the car, was not wearing a seatbelt and was initially arrested on a warrant out of Colorado, Feb. 23, for failure to pay child support.
Martinez then searched Pults, 35, and found a small bag which Pults allegedly told him was methamphetamine, followed by a larger bag of “crystal-like substance” which he allegedly called “fake meth,” Martinez wrote.
Martinez then asked Pults if he could search one of his bags. Pults consented and Martinez found another bag, which Pults allegedly also identified as “fake meth.” The girlfriend told deputies that Pults made the substance from horse vitamins in a plan to cut the real methamphetamine so he could make a profit when reselling it. Martinez then let her go, he wrote.
When Martinez conducted a field test, only the bag Pults identified as methamphetamine tested positive.
Rio Arriba Magistrate Judge Alexandra Naranjo released Pults on his personal recognizance on Feb. 26 with the requirement that he report to pre-trial services. However, he never contacted them and did not show up to a pre-trial hearing on March 19, where his conditions of release were to be discussed.
That same day, First Judicial District Deputy District Attorney Kent Wahlquist filed an amended criminal complaint charging Pults with the more severe crime of trafficking methamphetamine.
Magistrate Judge Joseph Madrid issued a nation-wide warrant for Pults for his failure to appear.