The Texas Department of Public Safety announced that a trooper seized 24 pounds of suspected fentanyl near Baylor University.
K-9 Karma alerted officers to a hidden compartment in a vehicle. The stop occurred on November 11 along I-35, just less than a quarter mile from the campus.
DPS said the trooper pulled over the driver after noticing indicators of organized criminal activity during the stop. The driver, Jaime Alberto Vanegas, allegedly drove over the speed limit, followed too closely, and traveled in the left lane without passing on the right.
Vanegas pulled over and told the trooper he did not have a driver’s license. Vanegas consented to a vehicle search before K-9 Karma sniffed the vehicle and helped uncover 10 bricks of suspected fentanyl concealed in the floor.
“A trap door was located in the floor of the vehicle that was consistent with aftermarket compartments used for smuggling contraband,” the trooper documented in the arrest warrant, according to KWTX.
“The packaging was removed from the kilos and revealed imprinted stamps into the bricks that are consistent marking used by a specific drug cartel organization that has been designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organization,” the warrant states.
“Just 2 mg of fentanyl is enough to take a life — imagine the deadly impact of 24 pounds… DPS Troopers continue working every day to keep this dangerous drug out of Texas communities,” the agency said in their statement.
Authorities arrested Vanegas on charges of manufacture and delivery of a controlled substance and unlawful use of a criminal instrument, KWTX reported. Vanegas no longer appears as an active inmate at the McLennan County Jail.