The California Highway Patrol seized over $3 million worth of methamphetamine following a high-speed pursuit through downtown Los Angeles on Tuesday, June 18.
Knewz.com has learned that officers from the California Highway Patrol have arrested the driver of the truck carrying the 190-pound meth haul.
An intense chase ensued when officers noticed a white Ford F-150 pickup truck with tinted windows crossing over a gore point on the Interstate 5 Freeway.
The high-speed pursuit ended at Figueroa and Second Streets near the 110 Freeway, the California Highway Patrol said via CBS News.
"A pursuit ensued, traversing various city streets and freeways to where then the vehicle then stopped along Second Street, south of Figueroa. At that point in time, officers put the individual into custody," California Highway Patrol Officer Roberto Gomez said in a statement via ABC7.
CHP officers arrested the driver when the pickup truck came to a halt and found several plastic bins filled with vacuum-sealed packets of powdered meth in the vehicle.
The total haul weighed around 190 pounds, which has a street value of $3.4 million according to the officers. The California Highway Patrol also discovered $5,000 in cash in the truck.
The incident is still under investigation, and officers are not yet sure if the arrested individual was related to a drug ring. As of now, he has been charged with transporting drugs with the intent to sell.
The problem of drugs like meth moving through Los Angeles has become a significant problem, as pointed out by a Florida sheriff associated with the Central Florida High-Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA) task force, an agency that recently concluded a multi-agency two-year-long undercover investigation.
Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd has claimed that a significant share of the drugs that turn up under his jurisdiction enter the county through the "City of Angels," and called the Los Angeles International Airport one of the biggest drug smuggling gateways of the world.
The recent HIDTA investigation, nicknamed "Operation Flying Ice," revealed that "large amounts of methamphetamine were being smuggled from California to Florida in checked luggage on domestic flights," per a press release published by the Polk County Sheriff's Office.
With the cooperation of over 10 law enforcement agencies, including the United States Department of Homeland Security Investigations, the task force arrested 85 suspects and seized millions of dollars worth of illegal narcotics.
The arrested individuals were charged with a total of 355 felonies and 93 misdemeanors.
While the investigation was a huge success, the Polk County Sheriff believes it exposes a major problem with the Los Angeles International Airport.
"Over and over on these domestic airlines from LAX, through suitcases drugs were smuggled here... On one occasion, on one airline, six suitcases with this drug was smuggled into Orlando," Sheriff Judd in a conversation with ABC7.
"They didn't so much as throw a pair of underwear in the suitcase to act like they were hiding the drugs. You think LAX has got a drug smuggling problem?"
Judd said that the HIDTA investigation showed that drugs "pouring out" of Los Angeles was not a "one-off event" but an ongoing regularity. "[Drug traffickers] use this multi, multi-billion dollar travel industry as their go-to, to move drugs across this country."
ABC7 reported that the news outlet set out to uncover similar reports of drugs originating in the LAX and reaching other parts of the U.S. and found several instances. "Multiple law enforcement sources say LAX is likely the drug trafficking hub of the world," the outlet wrote.