Two people from Texas were arrested Tuesday morning after a “trophy size load” of cocaine was seized after a traffic stop on the Indiana Toll Road, according to the La Porte County Sheriff’s Office.
Just before 9:30 a.m., a highway interdiction deputy was traveling eastbound on the Indiana Toll Road in the area of the 54-mile marker. A pickup truck was traveling ahead of the deputy in the driving lane. The pickup truck proceeded to move from the driving lane to the passing lane to overtake a commercial motor vehicle (CMV). While doing so, the pickup truck failed to correctly signal the lane change. After overtaking the CMV, the pickup truck again failed to correctly signal the lane change as it moved from the passing lane and back into the driving lane.
A traffic stop on the pickup truck was initiated by the deputy near the 56-mile marker. The driver was identified as 43-year-old Maricela C. Bonilla-Torres of Houston, Texas. The passenger was identified as 44-year-old Erick C. Montes, also from Houston.
As the traffic stop progressed, the deputy developed reasonable suspicion that Bonilla-Torres and Montes were engaged in criminal activity. Montes refused to follow instructions and was argumentative, police said. He was taken into custody as a precautionary measure. Shortly thereafter, a second interdiction deputy arrived to assist.
An agency narcotics K-9 was deployed around the exterior of the pickup truck for a free-air sniff. The K-9 alerted to the presence of the odor of narcotics emitting from the interior of the truck. A search of the truck commenced, and deputies located multiple vacuum sealed rectangular packages of suspected narcotics within the interior. Bonilla-Torres was taken into custody.
Bonilla-Torres and Montes were eventually transported to the La Porte County Jail (LCJ). They were both arrested for dealing in cocaine. As of Wednesday, Bonilla-Torres and Montes were housed in the LCJ and were being held on a $50,005.00 cash bond through La Porte County Circuit Court.