A California Highway Patrol officer found 15 pounds of cocaine with a street value of about $700,000 packed in almond bags in a car stopped on I-5 in Merced County on April 27, the agency reported.
The officer pulled over a 2010 Subaru for a traffic violation at about 3:15 p.m. on I-5 at State Route 140, about 30 miles west of Merced.
During the stop, something about the situation caught the officer’s interest and a search was conducted using a K-9 officer, according to a CHP spokesman.
“It was just a normal traffic stop,” CHP Officer Gregorio Rodriguez in the Merced Office told The Epoch Times. “That’s kind of what usually happens. Something was out of the ordinary. The officer did see some criminal indicators and the dog hit on the bags of almonds.”
While conducting a search of the vehicle, the dog discovered the suspected cocaine divided into 1-kilogram amounts and factory-sealed within bags containing almonds, according to the CHP.
The driver, Angel Lopez Velasco, 20, of Mt. Vernon, Wash., and his passenger, Jenifer Cisneros, 20, of Burlington, Wash., were arrested and booked into the Merced County Jail on suspicion of possessing a controlled substance for sale, and transporting a controlled substance across noncontiguous counties.
The case was turned over to the Merced Area Gang Narcotics Enforcement Team, a high-intensity unit made up of state and county law enforcement members.
