Couple Who Fled Authorities Arrested

John Lara and Gabriella Quintana, the pair who allegedly fled sheriff's deputies investigating a "known drug house" in Laguna Niguel this morning, were arrested at 3 this afternoon.

The suspects were taken into custody at 10:41 a.m. at a Carl's Jr. on Oso Parkway at the 5 Freeway, according to Lt. Jerry Carlsen.

The arrests ended a manhunt that began about 1:25 a.m., when neighboring residents were awakened by an Orange County Sheriff's Department helicopter searching for the two near Whitney Court and Big Bend Drive. Authorities said the pair fled from a drug house.

Two Laguna Niguel sheriff's deputies were in an unmarked car observing a 2007 Lexus parked in the driveway of the house, Lt. Jerry Carlsen said.

Officers knew the people associated with the Lexus, a 23-year-old female with two outstanding bench warrants and a 24-year-old male on probation, he said.

When the two came out of the house, they got into the car. Two uniformed deputies quickly approached and asked the pair to get out, but they refused.

"One of the deputies grabbed the arm of the male suspect, who was in the driver's seat, and attempted to pull him out," Carlsen said. "The officer tased the male in his left shoulder. However, he started the car, drove over the deputy's foot and fled."

The deputy was taken to Mission Hospital but has since been released. His foot was not broken, said Carlsen.

At about 2:30 a.m., the Sheriff's Department received a call from a woman who said that a suspicious car was in her driveway in the 28000 block of Rancho Grande. No one was in the car, she said. The car was the Lexus that had been abandoned by the fleeing pair.

Authorities sent bloodhounds, K9 units and a helicopter to search the area until 6:30 a.m.