Liquid meth, fentanyl found in vehicle

On Friday, El Centro Sector Border Patrol agents assigned to the Highway 86 checkpoint arrested a female suspected of smuggling liquid methamphetamine and fentanyl hidden inside her vehicle’s gas tank.

About 12:50 p.m., a woman approached the Border Patrol checkpoint in a white Ford F-150, a Customs and Border Protection news release stated.

As the vehicle approached the primary inspection booth, a K-9 team alerted to the vehicle.

The primary agent referred the vehicle to secondary inspection, where the dog again alerted to the vehicle.

Agents used a fiber-scope camera to search the vehicle’s gas tank and found numerous anomalies inside.

The gas tank was removed from the vehicle for further inspection. Agents determined the anomalies to be 23 sealed plastic bags containing an unknown liquid and one containing blue pills.

The liquid tested positive for the characteristics of meth and the pills tested positive for the characteristics of fentanyl.

The 23 sealed plastic bags containing meth had a combined weight of 196 pounds with an estimated value of $612,000.

The single sealed bag containing fentanyl had approximately 1,000 pills, weighed 1 pound and had an estimated value of $25,000.

The woman, a U.S. citizen, the vehicle and the drugs were turned over to the Drug Enforcement Administration for further investigation.

Five vehicles reported keyed

Five vehicles on Judy Avenue were reportedly keyed all the way around by an unknown suspect, county Sheriff’s Office activity logs stated.

All the vehicles belonged to one owner, who notified ICSO of the incident at 7 a.m. Monday.

It was estimated that $11,300 in total damage was done to the vehicles. The owner told ICSO that he had no known enemies and was willing to prosecute.

— Vincent Osuna, vosuna@ivpressonline.com