Around 9 pm on Wednesday, April 17, the Frio County Sheriff’s office conducted a traffic stop on an 18 wheeler traveling on IH-35 between Moore and Pearsall, headed north. The deputies conducted a vehicle search after verbal consent was granted, finding a large amount of “black tar heroin,” approximately 3720 grams, according to the Frio County Sheriff’s office.
“This is an extremely large amount of black tar heroin,” the sheriff’s office said. What we typically see in this area is maybe a quarter ounce or 7-14 grams of this stuff–street level amounts. This is our biggest black tar bust in our Frio County without a doubt. It has a street value of millions of dollars.”
Shortly after the search began, the deputy’s K9 partner, Stryker, showed interest to get inside the vehicle and alerted on a fire extinguisher. The deputy called for assistance, and they discovered the fire extinguisher to have a compartment containing what appeared to be Black Tar Heroin. The total weight of the heroin was 3720 grams, which is approximately 8.2 lbs.
“What they did is they cut open the very bottom of the fire extinguisher and stuffed it with heroin and then welded it back together. They repainted it too, but you could tell the colors were a little off,” the sheriff’s office said. “Black tar heroin is a really bad drug, very dangerous. It is injected and once you’ve taken one hot-one injection–you are hooked. We see a lot of people whose lives are destroyed by this drug.”
The deputy also noted, “the extinguisher worked for a short time and still had a heavy weight to it.”
From the very beginning, deputies stated “the driver was acting nervous by talking and laughing.”
This was the biggest bust yet for K9 officer “Stryker”, an invaluable asset to Frio County.
“This particular K9 was actually given to the sheriff’s office for free because one of the local pd’s thought she had lost her touch. We took her and sent her off for some more training, and she is doing great. She has assisted with about a dozen cases, including the big bust this Wednesday. We have one other drug dog which we purchased using seizure money. The ongoing maintenance for our K9 dogs is only about $1,500 each year for each dog, and it’s well worth it. Our dogs are really great.”
The suspect male suspect was placed in custody for Possession of controlled substance Penalty Group 1, which is a 1st Degree Felony.