Truck Driver Found Near HdG with 5 Bricks of Heroin

A California man is being held without bail after a traffic stop near Havre de Grace uncovered 5,700 grams of heroin and nearly 500 grams of methamphetamine in compartments built into the Freightliner he was driving, according to The Aegis.

Cesar Octavio Carillo-Gomez, 52, of Gonzales, CA, has been charged with two counts of importing drugs into the state, two counts of possessing a large amount of drugs, two counts of possession with intent to distribute narcotics and two counts of possession of narcotics, according to online court records.

The charges stemmed from a July 24 incident, court records show.

At approximately 8:40 p.m. on Thursday, July 24, a state trooper from the Perryville barrack pulled over Carillo-Gomez after noticing he was driving erratically and didn’t heed a traffic control device, according to The Aegis, which reported the trooper called in a K-9 team that alerted officials to the five bricks of drugs after noticing signs of criminal activity.

Carillo-Gomez’s arrest came the same day the state released data indicating that overdose fatalities were up 33 percent in the first quarter of this year compared with 2013, according to The Washington Post.

Earlier this summer, Gov. Martin O’Malley created a task force to combat the problem of opioid overdoses, which have spiked in recent years as addicts turn from painkillers, which have become more tightly regulated, to heroin that is sometimes laced with fentanyl.

“...while I’d l like to stand here and tell you that this is getting better, it’s not,” O’Malley said last week, following the announcement that 148 deaths had been related to heroin between January and March. “It’s getting worse...” O’Malley said, according to a report from WBAL.

In response to the heroin epidemic, jurisdictions around the state are coming up with preventive measures. For example, the Harford County Health Department is offering training in naloxone, which can reverse the effects of an overdose, starting in August.

In addition, police officers and prosecutors are cracking down on drug dealing operations across Maryland, WBAL reported.

During a hearing on Monday, a Harford County judge ordered Carillo-Gomez to be held without bail, according to The Aegis, which said the value of the heroin he was transporting was $1 million, while the methamphetamine was worth $100,000.

Carillo-Gomez has a preliminary hearing scheduled in Harford County District Court for Aug. 21.