Surrender by Suspect Leads to $5 Million : Investigation: Drug agents find $1.3 million in his car and $3.7 million in a home. Two other suspects are arrested.

Drug agents tailing a suspect with $1.3 million in his car were astounded when he pulled into the parking lot of a Sheriff’s Department training facility and surrendered, apparently thinking those behind him were robbers, authorities said Wednesday. The unexpected surrender led authorities to $5 million in cash, the third largest cash seizure in state history.

The suspect, Rapheal Kuadra, 32, apparently thought the mEn following him on the Santa Ana Freeway on Saturday night were trying to get the money in his car, said Edward Synicky, a spokesman For the state Bureau of Narcotics Enforcement.

“He pulled into the parking lot of the academy, went up to one of the agents and said: ‘Are you a police officer? I’m being followed and I have something in the car that I think is illegal and I want to give it to police,’ ” Synicky said.

“I think he was scared. He was carrying a whole bunch of money, and he wanted to go somewhere safe.”

Kuadra, of San Diego, allowed authorities to search the car, where they found $1.3 million bundled into packets of $10,000 and stuffed into four duffel bags.

“The car, ironically, had a ‘Say No to Drugs’ sticker on the back,” Synicky said.

The incident began when state agents that day followed a U-Haul truck driven by Juan Carlos Barrios, 36, to a Los Angeles-area motel, where he met Kuadra.

The agents then followed the two men, who were in separate vehicles, to a Baldwin Park home, where the two unloaded some items. They then followed Barrios, who was driving the U-Haul truck, to the Ontario Airport and followed Kuadra onto the freeway into Orange County.

Barrios, of Berwyn, Ill., was arrested as he stood in line to buy a plane ticket at the airport.

A short time later, agents obtained a search warrant for the Baldwin Park home that Kuadra and Barrios had visited. There, they arrested a third man, Martin Felix Heras, 19, who lived there.

At the house, agents found $3.7 million in cash in duffel bags by a bed, Synicky said. They also found two kilograms of cocaine, three AK-47s, a rifle, three handguns and a bulletproof vest, he said.

The three men are being held at Orange County Jail on charges of conspiracy to distribute narcotics, possession of cocaine for sale, and possessing more than $100,000 obtained through drug trafficking.

Their bail has been set at $1 million each.

Agents are continuing their investigation into the alleged drug ring. “We certainly are not through,” Synicky said.