$423K in Cocaine Seized From Driver at I-5 Checkpoint Near San Clemente

By MAGGIE AVANTS (Patch Staff)

SAN CLEMENTE, CA -- A 49-year-old U.S. citizen was arrested Thursday on Interstate 5 when more than $400,000 worth of cocaine was allegedly found hidden in the vehicle he was driving.

Agents with the San Diego Border Patrol Sector stopped the man, who was driving a 2004 Ford F-150 pickup truck, at 8:30 a.m. Thursday near the San Clemente checkpoint, according to a news release issued Friday.

"A cursory inspection by a Border Patrol K-9 produced an alert to the man’s vehicle," U.S. Border Patrol officials stated in the news release. "A search by agents yielded 12 bundles of cocaine in an after-market compartment hidden beneath the truck’s center console."

The cocaine weighed 26.46 pounds and had an estimated street value of $423,360, officials said.

"This drug seizure not only keeps the narcotics out of our communities, thereby making them safer, but also denies the responsible transnational criminal organization any profit from their sale," said Thomas Blanks, Patrol Agent in Charge of the San Clemente Station.

Agents turned the driver and the drugs over to the custody of the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, according to the news release.

U.S. Border Patrol seized the Ford F-150.

(Photos courtesy of U.S. Border Patrol San Diego Sector)