Nearly four pounds of heroin with an estimated value of more than $100,000 were seized when the Colorado State Patrol made a traffic stop of a car on Interstate 70 near Grand Junction, authorities said today.
The heroin “was destined to be sold on the streets of Denver,” said Jeffrey Sweetin, regional special agent in charge for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.
Sweetin said the heroin was found hidden in the spare tire of a sports-utility vehicle when the CSP pulled the vehicle over on Wednesday. Authorities arrested the car’s occupants, Luis Fernando Ornelas-Trevino and Jorge Gonzalez-Esqueda, believed to be Mexican nationals.
The heroin find was made in a routine traffic stop, said DEA Special Agent Mike Turner. Authorities did not disclose how officers learned heroin was in the car, but Turner said they had no advance knowledge the drugs were in the car.
