When a Pueblo County Sheriff’s patrol deputy pulled over a green Chevy Tahoe weaving its north on Interstate 25 late Thursday afternoon, two men with Mexican IDs acting nervously inside said they were looking for deer.
A drug-sniffing police dog tracked down more wilder game: 9.5 pounds of methamphetamine, worth an estimated $750,000, stashed in a hidden compartment.
Driver Oscar Lara Acosta, 33, and his passenger, 45-year-old Juvantino Villalba-Leyva, are being held in the Pueblo County Jail on $100,000 bond each, but have immigration holds waiting if they are released, the Sheriff’s Department said on its website.
Federal authorities describe I-25 as a primary transportation artery to move illicit drugs from Mexico to Denver and points beyond, noting the state’s strategic location in the center of the Western U.S.
“Denver, the state’s capital and largest city, is a primary regional distribution center for methamphetamine, cocaine, heroin, marijuana, and MDMA,” U.S. Department of Justice’s National Drug Intelligence Center states on its website.
“Wholesale distributors in Denver supply midlevel and retail distributors with these drugs in virtually all cities in Colorado, as well as cities in several other states.”
