Arizona police have released unbelievable dash-cam footage from a high-speed pursuit in which the passengers of a Chevy Trailblazer started throwing bales of pot on the highway.
Perhaps more…believably, the Pinal County Sheriff’s Office (PCSO) said that some of that evidence was permanently lost after a number of motorists stopped to pick up the drugs from the road.
“During the entire length of the pursuit, bales of marijuana were being thrown from the vehicle onto I-10,” said a PCSO release. “Four or five vehicles not involved with the transportation of the marijuana even stopped and grabbed bales, which neither deputies nor DPS were able to recover due to traffic conditions.”
Police said the pursuit stated on Wednesday, March 4, 2015 at around 11:45 am when a Pinal County Sheriff’s Deputy who was monitoring traffic noticed a white 2006 Chevrolet Trailblazer speeding.
“When the deputy caught up with the vehicle, he attempted to perform a traffic stop near mile marker 195 on I-10. The vehicle began to accelerate to speeds in excess of 100 mph and the occupants began to throw bales of marijuana out of the vehicle onto the roadway,” said PCSO.
The two suspects, identified as 43-year-old Mario Perez-Paz and 21-year-old Juan Aguilar-Zavala, eventually ran out of luck, or rather, they ran over a set of spike stripes that deflated both front tires of their Chevy SUV. They tried to run, but they were quickly apprehend and taken into custody.
“During their interviews, the men indicated they were offered $1000 by a female in Phoenix to drive the Trailblazer to I-8 to pick up unknown packages,” said the police report.
Minus the stash that was recaptured by motorists, the cops managed to recover approximately 374 pounds (170 kg) of marijuana.
Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu stated, “These foreign drug smugglers try to outrun our deputies and even throw bales of marijuana from their vehicle. We caught these criminals who put our deputies and our local citizens in harm’s way and now they will go to prison for their crimes.”
The Sheriff’s office said they believe the two suspects’ final destination was a stash house in Mesa, Arizona, that they discovered earlier in the day after a second pursuit in which “approximately 10 individuals fled, of which 9 were taken into custody and turned over to U.S. Border Patrol agents”.
“From the information developed from the first pursuit, Border Patrol and Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials were able to determine the intended destination of the suspected smugglers and marijuana was a stash house in Mesa, where authorities discovered 20 illegals from Guatemala and Mexico” read the Sheriffs’ Office release.
Babeu took advantage of the two incidents to throw a jab at President Barack Obama’s executive action on immigration.
“This further proves that not only drugs like methamphetamine, cocaine and heroin are being smuggled into America by way of Arizona, but scores of illegals from Central America have never stopped,” stated Sheriff Babeu. “Meanwhile, President Obama continues to violate US immigration law and instead prioritizes the needs and concerns of illegals ahead of American citizens. This further undermines the rule of law and our current immigration process that currently allows more foreigners to lawfully immigrate into America every year than every other nation combined.”
Last January, the Pinal County Sheriff’s Office made headlines when deputies killed a suspected car thieve after a chase claiming that the man “refused to obey the commands and suddenly reached back into the vehicle”, but an eyewitness cell-phone video that emerged later painted a different story stirring a heated debate.