A 7th DUI conviction for Salinas man, an unpleasant discovery in In-N-Out drive-through for police
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A Salinas man was sentenced to three years in state prison for his seventh DUI conviction, with four felony DUI convictions coming in the last 10 years, authorities said.
The man, identified as Carlos Alvarez, 33, of Salinas, was arrested on a felony DUI charge involving an incident in June 2025, the Monterey County district attorney’s office said in a news release.
Alvarez was arrested at an In-N-Out restaurant in Salinas after a security guard alerted California Highway Patrol officers to a “possible drunk driver that was asleep at the wheel in the drive through line.” When the CHP officers made contact with Alvarez, they immediately smelled the strong odor of “urine, vomit, and an alcoholic beverage coming from within the car,” according to prosecutors.
Authorities arrested Alvarez on a felony DUI charge due to his prior convictions.
The district attorney’s office did not disclose what sentences, if any, were imposed on Alvarez for his prior convictions.
The case was investigated by the CHP and was prosecuted by the Monterey County district attorney’s specialized DUI Vertical Prosecution Unit.
![Jaime Ernesto Alvarez-Gonzalez, a citizen of Mexico who is unlawfully present in the U.S., pleaded guilty in federal court today, admitting that he impersonated a U.S. Border Patrol Agent in order to disrupt deportation missions. During an incident on January 8, 2026, Alvarez-Gonzalez closely followed an actual Border Patrol agent while both were driving black Ford F-150 trucks. Alvarez-Gonzalez’s truck appeared to be an undercover Border Patrol vehicle and had a Border Patrol sticker on the windshield, non-functioning radio communications antennae on the roof, a lightbar on the dashboard, a license plate frame displaying the words “Ferderal Truck” [sic.], and handcuffs hanging from the rear-view mirror.](https://ca-times.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/99bd528/2147483647/strip/true/crop/743x497+92+0/resize/1024x685!/format/webp/quality/75/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fcalifornia-times-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2F80%2Fe6%2F080b3451474bb7f56b7db1e952eb%2Fla-me-impersonating-border-patrol.jpg)
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