Sheriff’s deputies arrested a man Friday on suspicion of transporting drugs after finding 240,000 oxycodone pills in his car, officials said.
At 7:30 a.m. a detective from the sheriff’s Border Crime Suppression Team spotted a 2012 Chrysler 300 speeding on Interstate 5 near Camp Pendleton, sheriff’s Sgt. William Kerr said in a statement.
The detective pulled the vehicle over, and Kerr said the driver appeared nervous and provided deceptive answers.
A sheriff’s canine signaled that drugs might be in the car, and deputies who searched the vehicle found 32 packages of counterfeit oxycodone pills in the fuel tank.
Kerr said the pills are commonly known as “M30’s” or “Blues” and are typically smuggled into the United States from Mexico. They are known to contain lethal doses of fentanyl.
“This seizure and others like it continue to save individual families from the loss of loved ones to accidental overdoses,” Kerr said in the statement.
The man, a resident of Tijuana, Mexico, also faces an enhancement for possessing more than 24 kilograms of the drug.