PHOENIX — A deportation officer with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement led Arizona state police and federal agents on a high-speed desert chase in his government vehicle, throwing bundles of marijuana out of the window as he fled, the state’s Department of Public Safety said Wednesday.
Jason Alistair Lowery, 34, had been under surveillance for more than month after a known smuggler who had been arrested gave authorities a tip about the officer in an effort to get lenient treatment, Department of Public Safety Officer Carrick Cook said.
Lowery, who lives in the Phoenix suburb of Chandler, does not yet have an attorney.
Public Safety officers and federal agents tried to pull Lowery over Tuesday after he picked up a load of marijuana in the desert with his unmarked ICE pickup, Cook said. The officer fled, leading agents on a 45-minute chase at speeds of up to 110 mph as he threw 10 of the 14 bundles of pot that he had in the truck out of the window, Cook said.
“He got pretty desperate,” Cook said.
The chase began in the Vekol Valley, about 45 miles south of Phoenix, and ended just south of Sacaton, about 20 miles as the crow flies northwest from where the chase began. It ended when Lowery’s truck rolled over and he gave himself up.
Mexican drug cartels have infiltrated federal law enforcement agencies along the border for years, trying to get their own people hired or seeking out existing officers to recruit.
Between 2003 and early 2010, 129 U.S. customs officers and Border Patrol agents were arrested on corruption charges, according to Tom Frost, the Department of Homeland Security’s assistant inspector general for investigations. The office was not immediately able to provide an updated figured to The Associated Press.
Lowery was booked into Pinal County jail on charges of smuggling and felony flight and was turned over to ICE custody Wednesday morning.
The sheriff’s office also booked the man who was to receive the marijuana, identified as 33-year-old Joshua Duane Powell of Arizona City. In the trunk of Powell’s car at his home, police found 14 rifles and guns, seven of which had been reported stolen, according to a Public Safety document.
