2 Arrested In Rohnert Park Traffic Stop On Drugs, Weapons Charges

ROHNERT PARK, CA — Rohnert Park Department of Public Safety officers arrested two men on weapon and gun charges after a traffic stop Tuesday night. The officers stopped a Ford Expedition for a vehicle code
violation on Commerce Boulevard at Southwest Boulevard around 10:30 p.m.

The officers smelled marijuana in the vehicle and asked the occupants for identification, but both men only had a Mexican identification card. The officers noticed a high-capacity magazine for an assault rifle when
the driver opened the glove box to get registration and insurance information, the Department of Public Safety said.

Sergio Mendez-Zurita, 24, of Santa Rosa, and Saul Esquivel-Gutierrez, 26, of Cotati were removed from the vehicle where officers found two large garbage bags full of individually packaged one-pound bags of processed marijuana, according to the Public Safety Department.

The officers also found three handguns, two of them loaded, and a high-capacity magazine for a handgun under the center console of the Ford, the Department of Public Safety said.

Mendez-Zurita also was in possession of a methamphetamine pipe and suspected methamphetamine, the Department of Public Safety said.

Both men were booked in the Sonoma County Jail under $30,000 bail on drug and weapons possession charges.

By Bay City News Service

Photo via Rohnert Park Department of Public Safety