LOUISVILLE, KY. (WDRB) -- An Indiana State Police trooper's ruse led to an arrest involving a suspected heroin deal.
It began Wednesday afternoon just before 2:00 when Trooper Randel Miller pulled over a Chevy Malibu for a traffic violation. The trooper spoke to the driver, 21-year-old Ubaldo Lopez-Gonzalez of Indianapolis, and discovered he didn't have a drivers license. Trooper Miller also, according to a news release, "detected numerous indicators of possible criminal activity."
A K-9 officer from the Seymour Police Dept., however, couldn't find any drugs.
Police say Lopez-Gonzalez's cell phone kept ringing, and Trooper Miller answered it, intending to tell the person on the other end of the line to quit calling. Instead, the caller addressed the trooper as "Angel" and asked if they would be meeting "in the same place." Trooper Miller told the caller that the location for their meeting had changed.
Trooper Miller handed over Lopez-Gonzalez to another trooper and went to the new meeting location. A suspect got out of a cab there, saw the trooper, and began to run. Trooper Miller told the suspect to stop or he'd tase him. The suspect stopped.
The suspect told the trooper he regularly purchased heroin from Lopez-Gonzalez and that he was to meet him that afternoon. He also said Lopez-Gonzalez would carry double-bagged heroin in his mouth and would swallow it if he encountered police.
Trooper Miller took over $1,000 from that suspect and released him, intending to seek conspiracy charges against him later.
After Trooper Miller got a search warrant, Lopez-Gonzalez was taken to a Seymour hospital where an X-ray revealed something "unusual" in his stomach. He was given laxatives, and several hours later, police obtained seven balloons containing powdered heroin.
Lopez-Gonzalez was taken to the Jackson County Jail and faces drug dealing and possession charges, along with charges of obstruction of justice and not having a drivers license. Immigration officials also discovered that he was in the U.S. illegally, according to the release. The investigation is ongoing.
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