2 charged with dealing after police find drug-filled package

Two men are in jail Wednesday afternoon, each charged with seven felonies, after police were tipped last week to a "suspicious package" being shipped to a Lafayette hotel.

Rosario Humberto Ruiz-Ruiz, 45, of the 1000 block of Union Street in Lafayette, and Derrick J. Miller, 36, of the 2200 block of Cousteau Drive in West Lafayette, are in the Tippecanoe County Jail on $5,000 bond each.

Detectives with the county's drug task force opened the box, which contained another box, which itself contained four heat-sealed bags of methamphetamine crystals and fentanyl pills, according to a probable cause affidavit filed against the men Wednesday.

Meanwhile, an employee at the hotel to which the package was addressed called police to let them know two men at the hotel were asking about the box.

Officers provided the hotel with a "decoy package." One of the men showed the employee an ID with the name on the package, who turned out to be Ruiz, despite police later finding several kinds of IDs with different names but with the same man's photo, the court document said.

Police searched the room Ruiz was renting and allegedly found more fentanyl, a large amount of cash and a shotgun. Ruiz is not a legal resident, according to the affidavit.

The other man, Miller, told officers that Ruiz told him he was expecting a package with about a pound of meth, and that he had bought large quantities of meth from Ruiz in the past year.

Each of the men is charged with felonies that include four charges of drug dealing, two of drug possession and one of illegal gun possession.