Two suspects were arrested in North Carolina on Sunday after a sheriff's K-9 deputy sniffed out 118 pounds of fentanyl inside their vehicle, authorities said.
Lorenzo Juan Arreola, 44, of New Mexico, and Lucio Eduardo Chavira Avila, 33, of Parral Chihuahua, Mexico, were driving in a 2014 Freightliner tractor-trailer on I-77 when deputies pulled them over for a traffic violation, the Iredell County Sheriff said Monday.
The men were traveling from Charlotte, North Carolina, to Philadelphia with a load of tile. The deputies’ K-9 Groot, however, sniffed narcotics inside their vehicle.
Deputies then searched the vehicle and discovered 118 pounds (53.6 kilos) of suspected fentanyl believed to be mixed with cocaine, along with over $100,000 in cash.
The drugs were estimated to have a street value of over $3.75 million, the sheriff’s office said.
Arreola and Avila were each arrested and being held at the Iredell County Detention Center on a $3.5 million bond.
BORDER PATROL AGENTS BUST DRIVER HAULING MORE THAN $3.5M IN FENTANYL PILLS ON CALIFORNIA INTERSTATE
The sheriff’s office warned of the dangers of fentanyl, writing that the amount of fentanyl the men hauled was enough to kill nearly 27 million people, more than double North Carolina’s population.
"The supply of illegal drugs is at an all-time high across our nation, which drives violence, addictions, and other crimes," the sheriff’s office wrote. "We need our lawmakers to secure our borders and provide the resources to stop the flow of these deadly narcotics across the southern border."
