A plea deal is in the works for the driver of a car that was found to contain more than $1 million in methamphetamine and fentanyl in April 2023 after a traffic stop in Twin Falls County.

Wilson Fontes Mendivil, 26, of Mexico, was scheduled Monday for a change of plea hearing related to felony charges of drug trafficking of more than 400 grams of meth and possession of a controlled substance. Attorney Anthony Valdez, however, said that although close, a plea deal hasn’t been finalized.

A counteroffer was sent to deputy prosecutor Jill Sweesy on Monday morning, but she didn’t have time to review it before the hearing.

District Judge Bill Hancock set a status conference for July 15 in case an agreement isn’t reached by then.

“Both parties have spent a lot of time trying to reach a resolution in this case,” Valdez said.

Mendivil is the last of the three people in the vehicle in the traffic stop along U.S. Highway 93 that hasn’t either pleaded guilty or been found guilty in trial.

Elton Loza, a passenger in the car, was found guilty after a jury trial in February and sentenced to 15 years to life in prison. His attorney, arguing that the search of the car — which yielded almost 25 pounds of methamphetamine and 5 pounds of fentanyl — wasn’t legal, has appealed the case to the Idaho Supreme Court.

His attorney, Aaron J. Tribble, argued unsuccessfully in district court in October that the traffic stop that uncovered the drugs was a warrantless and illegal stop and seizure.

Prosecutors, meanwhile, said there were multiple reasons for a Twin Falls deputy to suspect drugs were in the car, from one of the passengers smelling like marijuana to an image of a patron saint seen in the car, which is common for drug traffickers to carry in their vehicles.

Another passenger, Hector Olvera, was sentenced in March to a minimum of seven years in prison and eight years indeterminate after a plea deal.