Border Patrol Drug Bust
U.S. Border Patrol agents seized more than $400,000 worth of methamphetamine at a checkpoint near Indio and arrested the driver of the car where the drug was hidden, a spokesman said today.
Border Patrol dogs zeroed in on a Honda Civic at the Highway 86 Border
Patrol checkpoint near Indio on Friday night. Agents who subsequently inspected
the car noticed “anomalies within the door panels” and found a dozen packages
of meth hidden away, Agent Brandon Menancio said.
The 13.58 pounds had an estimated street value of $434,560, according to
Menancio.
The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration took custody of the driver, a
19-year-old female U.S. citizen, Menancio said. Border Patrol spokeswoman Cindy
Moreno said it is the agency’s policy to withhold suspects’ names.
It was the second meth seizure reported on Friday at that checkpoint —
agents also found about 23 pounds of methamphetamine in the gas tank of a
pickup truck and arrested the driver, according to Moreno.