Border Patrol Busts (Not-So) Smart Car Driver

SAN CLEMENTE, Calif.—Border Patrol agents patrolling Interstate 5 seized 75 bundles of methamphetamine from the vehicle of a 25-year-old U.S. citizen on Wednesday evening.

At around 8:45 p.m., agents initiated a vehicle stop on a 2008 Mercedes Smart car approximately three miles north of the Border Patrol checkpoint near San Clemente. The 25-year-old male driver and his 60-year-old female passenger indicated they were in route to La Puente.

Agents conducted a K-9 sniff of the vehicle, which produced a positive alert. Searching the car, the agents discovered 75 packages of methamphetamine and two packages of an unknown substance inside the cargo area of the vehicle.

The bundles of methamphetamine weighed 75.51 pounds and have an estimated street value of $256,734. The other two packages weighed 4.96 pounds and were sent to a laboratory for identification.

The couple were arrested for narcotics smuggling and turned over to the Drug Enforcement Administration along with the narcotics. The vehicle was seized by the U.S. Border Patrol.