Highway 46 traffic stop leads to arrests after K-9 sniffs out drugs, SLO County sheriff says
A traffic stop led to a drug bust after a K-9 sniffed out narcotics, according to the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office.
At approximately 5:30 p.m. Sunday, a Sheriff’s Office K-9 deputy stopped a vehicle on Highway 46 East in the area of Whitely Gardens for speeding and expired registration violations, the Sheriff’s Office said in a news release.
In the car were 30-year-old Prisciliano Cruz Garcia and 27-year-old Laura Nallely Ramirez Chavez, both of Paso Robles, according to the Sheriff’s Office.
During the traffic stop, K-9 Rooster conducted “an open air sniff around the vehicle” and “had an alert for the odor of narcotics,” the release said.
The deputy conducted a hand search of the vehicle and allegedly found a small baggie of suspected power cocaine as well as two baggies of pills suspected to be counterfeit hydrocodone and approximately $1,500 in cash, the Sheriff’s Office said.
Narcotics detectives from the Sheriff’s Office’s Special Operations Unit, San Luis Obispo County Probation Department and Homeland Security Investigations later served a search warrant at a Paso Robles apartment where Garcia and Chavez live, the release said.
According to the Sheriff’s Office, that search resulted the seizure of additional counterfeit hydrocodone pills; approximately three-quarters of a pound of heroin with a street value of $10,000; nearly $8,000 in cash and “evidence associated with narcotics sales.”
“The pills from the traffic stop were later analyzed at the Sheriff’s Office’s Crime Lab and tested positive as a mixture of fentanyl and tramadol,” the Sheriff’s Office said.
The agency said it seized approximately 2,000 pills with a street value of $20,000.
Garcia and Chavez were arrested on suspicion of possession of a controlled substance for sale and transporting/selling a controlled substance, according to the release.
Due to the zero-bail policy, Garcia and Chavez were released within four hours of being booked into San Luis Obispo County Jail, the Sheriff’s Office said.
This story was originally published August 6, 2020 at 6:51 PM.
