BINGHAM COUNTY — A 40-year-old North Dakota man was arrested this week after an Idaho State Police trooper’s suspicion of an erratic driver on Interstate 86 led to a high-speed chase through a construction zone and ultimately the discovery of a significant amount of illegal narcotics hidden in the man’s rental car.

Jamie Edmond Jones, of Fargo, North Dakota, has been charged with five felonies — trafficking in methamphetamine, trafficking in cocaine, trafficking in fentanyl, felony possession of marijuana and felony eluding — following the Idaho State Police Domestic Highway Enforcement team investigation, according to police and court records the Idaho State Journal obtained Thursday ISP also announced the seizure in a press release Wednesday, but did not identify Jones as the suspect.

The incident began to unfold around 11:30 p.m. on May 18 when an ISP trooper patrolling I-86 near exit 61 near the diverging diamond interchange in Pocatello observed a sedan with California plates passing at approximately 80 miles per hour, court records show. The driver, later identified as Jones, was riding the brakes as he passed the trooper, police said in an affidavit of probable cause filed against Jones Tuesday.

The trooper pulled out to follow Jones as he approached the on-ramp from I-86 to northbound Interstate 15, when he made an abrupt lane change without signaling, nearly clipping the construction barrels marking the lane merge, court records show. The trooper noted the California registration and the fact the vehicle appeared to be a rental, and decided to initiate a traffic stop for the failure to signal, police said.

The trooper activated his overhead lights in the construction zone, where the right lane was blocked and there was ample room for Jones to stop safely on the right shoulder. Jones continued slowly for a time without pulling over, and hit his brakes multiple times to signal as if was beginning to pull toward the shoulder only to then reoccupy the lane, police said. Between mile markers 74 and 80, the vehicle nearly struck a motorcycle traveling in the right lane and once he drove past mile marker 82, Jones accelerated to approximately 83 miles per hour and still did not yield despite the trooper’s lights and sirens remaining active, police said. The trooper advised dispatch Jones was failing to yield and requested other units respond, according to court records.

As the pursuit neared Exit 89, the business loop just before Blackfoot, another trooper advised that I-15 was shut down due to bridge construction, diverting all traffic onto southbound Highway 91. Rather than stopping behind a semi-truck as traffic slowed, Jones accelerated aggressively around it and passed the semi on the right shoulder, striking a construction sign, police said. Jones then passed a second semi-truck in close proximity to a flagging crew and ran a stop sign being held by flaggers at the end of the off-ramp, according to the report. The pursuing trooper said he feared for the safety of the flagging crew on the shoulder.

The vehicle then turned south on Highway 91 toward Fort Hall where tribal police set up spike strips on Broncho Road. Jones struck the strip and within approximately one mile the right-side tires deflated and Jones pulled to the shoulder, police said.

Law enforcement from Idaho State Police, the Bingham County Sheriff’s Office and Fort Hall Police held Jones at gunpoint until a deputy was able to detain him in handcuffs, according to court records. Jones was somewhat aggressive and refused to say where he was coming from, accusing officers of racial profiling. He identified himself only as Jamie and declined to answer further questions. He was later identified via his North Dakota driver’s license, police said.

When officers opened the trunk to check for additional occupants, a large vacuum-sealed package of marijuana was immediately visible in an open suitcase, according to court records. A subsequent search of a black backpack in the trunk turned up two vacuum-sealed packages resembling a common one-pound methamphetamine packaging, and a large white brick consistent with a kilogram of cocaine or fentanyl powder. A smaller vacuum-sealed bag containing a white brick approximately one-third the size of a kilogram was also recovered, along with a small marijuana dispensary bag in the front of the vehicle, police said.

Also recovered during the search were a receipt for a plane ticket from St. Paul, Minnesota to San Francisco, a baggage ticket for the same flight, a rental car agreement showing the vehicle had been rented in San Francisco, a bank receipt reflecting a $14,000 cash withdrawal from a Chase Bank in Stockton, California, and two cell phones, according to court records. Officers placed the phones in a faraday box to prevent remote wiping and said a warrant was being pursued to examine them for evidence of Jones’s criminal enterprise.

The methamphetamine tested presumptive positive using a TruNarc device, with the two bags weighing 944.2 grams. The suspected cocaine brick weighed 1,074.1 gross grams, and the white brick recovered from the black bag tested positive for fentanyl and weighed 532.5 gross grams. The marijuana weighed 252.8 gross grams total, police said. Dispatch later informed the trooper that Jones had previous drug trafficking charges on an extensive criminal history, according to court records. The seized narcotics totaled over 2,800 grams, or just over 6 pounds — including just over 2 pounds of meth, 2.3 pounds of cocaine, 1.1 pounds of fentanyl and just over one-half pound of marijuana.

ISP said the seizure highlights the value of having a dedicated team focused on disrupting drug trafficking across Idaho. The DHE team is supported through the Oregon-Idaho High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area, or HIDTA, program, according to ISP. Jones appeared before 7th District Magistrate Judge Cleve B. Colson for an arraignment hearing on Tuesday where his bond was set at $200,000.

Jones is scheduled to appear in court again on May 28 for a preliminary hearing. Prosecutors will attempt to present sufficient evidence to elevate the case from magistrate to district court for trial.

The trafficking charges Jones faces carry mandatory minimum sentences. The fentanyl trafficking charge alone carries a mandatory minimum of 10 years fixed and a $25,000 fine, with penalties for all charges extending up to life in prison and fines of up to $100,000 each if convicted.