San Onofre
A 26-year-old Mexican man was in custody Thursday after U.S. authorities discovered 32 pounds of cocaine in his car at the Border Patrol immigration checkpoint along Interstate 5 north of Oceanside, authorities said.
The suspect, Jose Luis Lopez Jimenez, a legal U.S. resident, was arrested late Wednesday night at the checkpoint, which is just south of the Orange County line, said Nobert Gomez, a Border Patrol spokesman.
An agent at the checkpoint noted the driver’s nervous demeanor and directed the vehicle to secondary inspection, Gomez said. A sniffer dog alerted authorities about possible drugs in the car, leading to the discovery of the cocaine in a hidden rear panel of the car, Gomez said.
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