A Utah Highway Patrol trooper’s report says he stopped the car just before Coalville on east Interstate 80 Oct. 26.
There were five people inside: two men and a family of three. Troopers say they suspect the men were trafficking the family for labor. No additional information was provided about the victims.
During the traffic stop, the driver allegedly told law enforcement the car was not his. Arrest documents say license plate and registration data show it had traveled 45,000 miles in the past two months, a pattern consistent with human trafficking.
Troopers say they received verbal consent to search the passenger’s phone, where they found texts from a third party promising payment when the family reached Indiana.
The driver was arrested on suspicion of human smuggling, and his passenger was arrested on suspicion of conspiring with him and benefiting from the smuggling.
Neither man had been charged as of Oct. 31. They are being held in the Summit County Jail without bail.
Authorities say they’ve found multiple human smugglers in the Wasatch Back during traffic stops this year. Most were traveling through Utah to another state.
During a two week period in August, two men were stopped in separate suspected smuggling incidents in Heber. And the month prior, three kidnapped Iowa girls were found at an I-80 rest stop.
