YAVAPAI COUNTY – Five people have been arrested after one of them, Thandan Hammel, landed in a northern Arizona hospital with illegal drugs in his clothes.
According to the Yavapai County Sheriff’s Office, on April 6, Prescott Police were dispatched to the Yavapai Regional Medical Center regarding a patient, the 30-year-old Hammel, who was admitted for an apparent opioid overdose.
When medical staffers were removing Hammel’s clothing and shoes, they allegedly found heroin, meth, and Xanax pills, which possibly contained fentanyl. After he had recovered, Hammel agreed to speak with detectives from the Partners Against Narcotics Trafficking (PANT) task force.
Hammel told detectives this his girlfriend, 25-year-old Alexis Wilkes, had dropped him off at the emergency room and left, but eventually returned. Hammel let detectives search his phone, where they reportedly discovered several texts describing the buying and selling of a large amount of illegal drugs.
Detectives then spoke to Wilkes, who admitted to dropping off Hammel at the hospital and leaving with a “black bag of drugs” that she intended to “throw away, according to YCSO. Wilkes consented to authorities searching her phone, which also reportedly contained text messages regarding the purchase and selling of drugs.
Detectives search the couple’s apartment and found nearly one ounce of black tar heroin packaged for sales, along with meth, fentanyl, and marijuana. Digital scales used by Hammel and Wilkes were also seized.