Two Houston, Texas residents were arrested Tuesday, April 30 on drug charges in La Porte County.
Just before 9:30 a.m. CT, a highway interdiction deputy was traveling eastbound on the Indiana Toll Road when a pickup truck traveling ahead of the deputy allegedly failed to correctly signal lane changes twice when passing a commercial motor vehicle.
A traffic stop was initiated by the deputy near the 56-mile marker. As the traffic stop progressed, the deputy developed reasonable suspicion that the driver and passenger were engaged in criminal activity, according to the report. Police say the passenger refused to follow instructions and was argumentative. He was taken into custody as a precautionary measure as a second deputy arrived at the scene.
An agency narcotics K9 was deployed around the exterior of the pickup truck for a free-air sniff and the K9 alerted to the presence of the odor of narcotics emitting from the interior of the truck. A search of the vehicle allegedly yielded multiple vacuum-sealed rectangular packages of suspected narcotics within the interior of the pickup.
The driver, 43-year-old Maricela Bonilla-Torres, and the passenger, 44-year-old Erick Montes, were taken into custody and transported to the La Porte County Jail where they were processed on preliminary charges of dealing in cocaine, a Level 2 Felony. They remain in the La Porte County Jail and are being held on a $50,005 cash bond through La Porte Circuit Court.
The agency’s Highway Interdiction Unit consists of specially-trained deputies who strategically patrol designated roadways to aggressively disrupt the flow of illegal drugs, weapons, and other criminal related activities moving domestically.
Agents from the Drug Enforcement Administration are assisting with the investigation.
Formal charges will be determined by the La Porte County Prosecutor’s Office.
Suspects are presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty in a court of law.
