POCATELLO — A 35-year-old Pocatello man was arrested Thursday and charged with four felonies after state police say he possessed heroin and fentanyl following a three month Idaho State Police investigation.

Karim Mohamed Elagaty, of the 600 block of East Whitman Street, was charged with possession of methamphetamine, possession of heroin, possession of fentanyl powder with the intent to distribute and possession of fentanyl pills with the intent to distribute, all felonies.

He was also charged with two misdemeanors for obstructing and delaying arrest as well as possessing drug paraphernalia, according to court records.

Idaho State Police and members of the Oregon-Idaho High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area, or HIDTA program, executed a search warrant at Elagaty’s home on Thursday afternoon as part of an ongoing investigation that first began on Nov. 15, 2021, according to Idaho State Police records the Idaho State Journal obtained Tuesday.

A state police trooper stopped a blue BMW 328i for speeding in the northbound lanes of Interstate 15 near the Fort Hall exit on Nov. 15 and Elagaty was identified as the driver of the vehicle, police said.

Elagaty gave the trooper permission to search the vehicle, which resulted in state police locating a scale consistent with the sale of narcotics that contained a white residue that tested positive for amphetamines, police said.

After the incident in November, members of the Idaho-Oregon HIDTA program began conducting surveillance of Elagaty and his Pocatello East Whitman Street home, said police, adding that the surveillance resulted in state police obtaining a search warrant for Elagaty’s home.

When state police and HIDTA members executed the search warrant last week, they located Elagaty sitting in the driver’s seat of a blue Hyundai Santa Fe just outside of the residence, police said.

Elagaty refused to comply with officers commands to exit the vehicle and was forcefully removed, according to police.

Troopers located a clear baggie in the driver’s seat of the car that contained 2.2 grams of fentanyl powder. In the driver’s side door, troopers also discovered 19 blue pills with the letter “M” imprinted on one side and the number “30” imprinted on the other, police said .

Inside the home, troopers said they located drug paraphernalia that tested positive for heroin.

Elagaty was booked into Bannock County Jail following his arrest and he remained there as of Tuesday evening with a $100,000 bond that was set on Friday.

State police said fentanyl overdoses have been on the rise, and because the drug isn’t manufactured to a precise dosage in a legitimate laboratory setting, one pill from a batch may be lethal while another pill from the same batch may not.

Elagaty is due back in court for a preliminary hearing on Feb. 15, which will involve prosecutors attempting to prove there is enough evidence against him to elevate the case from the magistrate to district court for trial.

If convicted of just one of the felony charges of possessing fentanyl with the intent to distribute, Elagaty faces up to life in prison and a fine of up to $25,000.