Flat-tire assist leads to drug cash stash, two arrests

Posted: Feb 13, 2008 06:19 PM

Last Updated: Feb 13, 2008 07:42 PM
Drug agent's stop to help two men with flat tire turns up $40,000 plus in drug-contaminated cash, gun in trunk (CODE Team photo)
Drug agent's stop to help two men with flat tire turns up $40,000 plus in drug-contaminated cash, gun in trunk (CODE Team photo)
Francisco Olivera-Amezcua, Gerardo Mendoza-Ruelas (Deschutes County Jail photos)
Francisco Olivera-Amezcua, Gerardo Mendoza-Ruelas (Deschutes County Jail photos)

Over $40,000, semi-automatic gun in trunk

By Barney Lerten, KTVZ.COM

A helpful drug agent stopped to help two men with their car's flat tire on Highway 97 in Redmond on Wednesday. But it soon turned into something else: A search of their car turned up more than $40,000 in drug-contaminated cash in the trunk, along with a semi-automatic handgun.

As you might expect, the two men, Francisco Olivera-Amezcua, 21, and Gerardo Mendoza-Ruelas, 23, both of Redding, Calif., were arrested.

Both were booked into the Deschutes County Jail in Bend on money-laundering charges. Ruelas' bail was $22,000 and Olivera-Amezcua $22,500, as he also is charged with carrying a concealed weapon and firearm possession. They also were being held without bail on a hold for federal immigration officials

Shortly before 10 a.m., a Central Oregon Drug Enforcement Team detective had stopped to help the two men with a flat tire on their 2000 Pontiac Grand Am, said Lt. John Gautney.

When the detective contacted the men, their actions made him suspicious, Gautney said, so he left and kept the pair under surveillance while calling for a Redmond officer to assist.

When the Redmond officer arrived, they got in touch with the pair, soon learning they did not own the car, registered in Washington state, Gautney said.

The driver gave them consent to search the vehicle, he said, and officers found the gun and a bag containing the cash in the trunk.

Sheriff's drug-sniffing dog Narc was called to the scene and alerted to the money having been associated with drugs, Gautney said.

The investigators found the car and men were heading from Washington to California in a car neither of them owned, Gautney said. The money and car were seized.


http://www.ktvz.com/global/story.asp?s=7869333