By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
CHEHALIS – The local drug detective team announced today they found 24 pounds of methamphetamine hidden inside the gas tank of a car and arrested two people.
The traffic stop of a 2011 Volkswagen Jetta took place on northbound Interstate 5 at milepost 81 on Friday, according to the Joint Narcotics Enforcement Team.
The stop followed an investigation by the team, according to a news release.
The drugs were located individually wrapped inside the Jetta’s fuel tank, JNET stated.
Arrested were the driver, 26-year-old Martin Alejandro Vega-Vega and passenger, 25-year-old Marco Antonio Lopez-Vega, both from Kent, according to the news release.
The investigation is ongoing.
The Lewis County Jail roster does not show the two men as detained there.
The news release states no further details will be provided. Centralia Police Department detective Patty Finch who forwarded the information to the news media said she did not know the answer as to where the arrestees are being held.
The Joint Narcotics Enforcement Team is staffed by law enforcement officers from the Centralia Police Department, the Chehalis Police Department and the Lewis County Sheriff’s Office.
Last month, sheriff’s Chief Deputy Dusty Breen advised the Lewis County Board of Commissioners that during January, JNET assisted federal agents in two separate incidents, one which turned up 13.7 pounds of meth and the other 15 pounds.
Tags: By Sharyn L. Decker, news reporter
I’m a Type 2 diabetic myself, Lurker, in no small part because I have a sweet tooth that I don’t control and now weigh 80 pounds more than when I graduated from high school. And you know what? It’s MY fault and mine alone…in other words, I’m accountable for my choices.
But thanks for calling me a moron. Name-calling is ALWAYS a great way to intellectually advance one’s point of view.
Dr. Gringo
What planet are you from anyway? Do you believe in slaughtering diabetics because they are ill? Many of them simply ate one ice cream cone more than they should have eaten. Type 2 diabetes is a matter of choice, in your train of logic. Addiction is a disease and has nothing to do with personal choice or responsibility. After all, you can’t pick your parents and addiction is rooted in an individual’s genetics. Only a moron would insinuate that addicts are totally at fault for their addiction. Nobody in their right mind, would willingly live under a bridge just so they could stay high. A responsible person, would not post the garbage that you posted. People like you ARE a very large part of the reason we have the problems we have regarding drug abuse. Nothing will change until people like you change your misconceptions on addiction.
If we legalize all drugs and create a market where an adult can legally get high on whatever he/she wants to put into their own bodies, then ALL social problems, not just problems associated with drugs, will DISAPPEAR OVERNIGHT!!!!!
–Said NOBODY ever!!!
You’re truly,
Captain F’n Obvious
Interesting that everyone’s being so quite as to where – or even if – they are being held in remand. It’s intriguing they were heading north. I’ve harbored my own suspicions for a few years now, about this area serving as a major distribution point for narco gangs coming out of Mexico. There’s an enormous amount of money available in drugs. Did someone possibly not make payment to the proper facilitators? It’s not unheard of.
How does someone get a load of drugs into a gas tank? Ever notice the places around here that seem to be doing automotive work in old buildings that have no advertising to the fact it’s an actual automotive repair facility?
We have to start somewhere, since the drug war is a war that cannot be won. Let’s legalize and regulate. Now if the police will just hear the people’s voices.b
BobbyinLC – here is a place where drugs have been decriminalized (not legalized, but not like here, either)
https://mic.com/articles/110344/14-years-after-portugal-decriminalized-all-drugs-here-s-what-s-happening#.FITTOUAPh
From the article (excerpt):
14 Years After Decriminalizing All Drugs, Here’s What Portugal Looks Like
Source: Transform Drug Policy Foundation
(Lifetime prevalence means the percentage of people who report having used a drug at some point in their life, past-year prevalence indicates having used within the last year, and past-month prevalence means those who’ve used within the last month. Generally speaking, the shorter the time frame, the more reliable the measure.)
Drug use has declined overall among the 15- to 24-year-old population, those most at risk of initiating drug use, according to Transform.
There has also been a decline in the percentage of the population who have ever used a drug and then continue to do so:
Drug-induced deaths have decreased steeply, as this Transform chart shows:
HIV infection rates among injecting drug users have been reduced at a steady pace, and has become a more manageable problem in the context of other countries with high rates, as can be seen in this chart from a 2014 report by the European Monitoring Center for Drugs and Drug Addiction Policy:
And a widely cited study published in 2010 in the British Journal of Criminology found that after decriminalization, Portugal saw a decrease in imprisonment on drug-related charges alongside a surge in visits to health clinics that deal with addiction and disease.
So if we legalize drugs does that mean meth addicts will no longer need to commit crimes to pay for the drugs? If people steal to pay for illegal heroin they will not be able to afford it just because it becomes legal.
I agree our “war on drugs” has failed miserably but to think that just be legalizing drugs all of our social ills will disappear is very naive.
Well said Peabody Slim, and you couldn’t be more correct.
I am willing to bet that these 2 men from Kent are not in any jail, because jnet managed to botch a major federal investigation. This means that the city/county/state had to let them wsklkk or the Feds would have to start completely over on their investigation.
gee whiz that jnet sure is on top of the drug crime I cannot count the pounds they have allegedly reported as stopped from being put onto the streets. the question here is down the same line as still waiting for justice says 24 pounds in a gas tank of a vehicle they were driving let me guess two gas tanks and a good guess,,,,,what does jnet do with all these tremendous amounts of methamphetamines?
“If I have to explain what country has implicated this program then you have no business commenting in a negative fashion about my statement.”
The First Amendment implies otherwise, Slim. I’d be interested if you can point to anyone who’s life has been improved by smoking meth or shooting heroin.
More to the point, I’m libertarian enough to believe that people should have the right to live their lives as they see fit as long as they harm nobody (beyond themselves) and take responsibility when things go wrong with their lives, but the realist in me asks how often that happens? The streets of Seattle are being overrun by people whose own lives suggest a total lack of responsiblity for how their own lives ended up.
I agree that the Drug War is a continuing litany of failure, but an “anything goes” attitude as a solution hasn’t been shown to work either.
If you read they were stopped going north bound. Mexican crime syndicates move product from Mexican mega labs northward so drugs were being possibly smuggled into the green river valley not from it. Don’t take my word for it is all over the internet and news blotter.
just think of the amount of resources and labor hours that the city of centralia could contribute to JNET with the hundreds of thousands of tax dollars that they are passing up by not embracing the marijuana retail market.
maybe we could catch a few more of these guys.
This recently seized amount of meth is just a small percentage that is being distributed throughout Washington state. In the right persons hands all of the precursors are easily made and 20lb batches are just a drop in the bucket for a master chemist. The problem with the drug war is the Government is losing and will continue to loose this unstoppable war. The sad thing is We the People are being used as slaves to pay for this unstoppable War. The real fact is drugs have been used by man for thousands of years up until the last 100 years the Government made them illegal. The only way to combat the problem is to legalize and regulate all drugs. Methamphetamine is the same drug as Adderall or Riddelen but it is prescribed by doctors and regulated by the DEA. So trying to say it’s a non medical drug is a losing argument. In the 70’s Amphetamines were passed out like candy for weight loss. The Human Society is going to keep seeking drugs forever and banning drugs is counter productive for our society’s greater good. It’s been proven time and time again that legalizing, controlling, regulating and proving free treatment options lowers crime levels and lowers addiction rates through education and Government programs. If I have to explain what country has implicated this program then you have no business commenting in a negative fashion about my statement. Legalize all drugs and sit back and watch the drug problem, murders and crimes drop dramacticly, also the need for extra police officers will no longer be needed either. For more information on this subject go to Law Enforcement Against Prohibition .Com this web site has auctual police officers explaining why our drug Prohibition has failed and how to fix the problem. Let other police officers in other states know that Marijuana is legal in Washington State and that atleast the Marijuana drug war is over., You no longer have to kick in doors and shoot people for a plant that’s harmless. Want to go after real drugs then ban alcohol, now there’s a dangerous drug that’s some how legal and acceptable….
ok – how would they know to check the gas tank – ?? I mean, excuse me, you have a broken tail light, let me check your tank…?
not that I want to become a drug runner, but how does one put 24 pounds of meth in a gas tank and how does one know or find it in the gas tank? come-can someone associate with law enforcement enlighten me on this subject?
Once again, a large commercial amount of narcotics seized, smuggled out of the notorious Green River Valley of Kent.