Behind the Badge
The Orange County Sheriff’s Department on Tuesday arrested a man who said he’s a police officer from Mexico for transporting more than 50 pounds of methamphetamine and concealing it in a secret compartment in his car.
The Oct. 9 arrest came after a member of a special OCSD Highway Interdiction Team made a traffic stop for vehicle code violations on the northbound 5 Freeway between Orange and San Diego Counties.
The driver, Miguel Patron, 41, of Ensenada, told the deputy he was a police officer in Mexico and handed him his police ID card.
“Patron was extremely nervous and several criminal indicators were identified by the deputy conducting the traffic stop,” the OCSD said in a news release Wednesday, Oct. 10.
Photo of suspect’s ID badge courtesy of OCSD
Patron consented to a search of his car and a narcotic detection dog alerted to the odor of narcotics in the vehicle, the news release said.
The deputy conducted a detailed search and located a manufactured hidden compartment within the vehicle, which contained more than 50 pounds of methamphetamine.
Patron was arrested for the transportation of a controlled substance and use of a hidden compartment to conceal a controlled substance.
He was booked into a San Diego County Jail without incident and bail is set at $200,000, the news release said.
The OCSD HIT team was formed in 2007 to catch drug and weapons traffickers missed by federal agents at the Mexico border.
