Police bust Coachella man with 2 lbs. of meth

Prosecutors have filed felony charges against a 30-year-old Coachella man accused of smuggling two pounds of methamphetamine in his car.

Leopoldo Ochoa Beltran was scheduled to be arraigned in Indio Monday afternoon on charges of possession of drugs for sale and transportation of drugs for sale. It was not immediately clear when or where the traffic stop that resulted in Beltran’s arrest happened. But sheriff’s investigators used the drug seizure to serve search warrants Thursday at locations in the 82-800 block of Avenue 60 in unincorporated Thermal, and the 50-400 block of Tomas Lane in Coachella.

The searches turned up 10 grams of cocaine, a pistol, about $13,000 in cash, scales, packaging and other items consistent with drug sales, sheriff’s Sgt. Frank Schiavone said.