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Last updated on Monday, August 4, 2014
(VANDERBURGH CO.,) - The Vanderburgh County Sheriff’s Office seized 14 pounds of crystal meth and arrested three men after the surveillance of several members of a drug trafficking organization out of Arizona.
The sheriff's office says the members of that organization were visiting Vanderburgh County to deliver five pounds of meth to a confidential informant.
Three vehicles and five people were identified as being involved in the trafficking operation.
Two vehicles were impounded while the third vehicle is still outstanding. We're told that third vehicle is a maroon 2010 Honda Accord 4-door with an Arizona license plate.
Officials say the maroon Honda and a silver Nissan were traveling north on U.S. 41 near I-64 towards Ft. Branch when law enforcement watched a male get into the Nissan.
They say the Nissan left the area after transporting the man across the lot to a Freightliner semi tractor-trailer.
After the Nissan reentered Vanderburgh County, Detective Lenny Reed with the Evansville Police Department attempted to stop the vehicle on U.S. 41 near Hillsdale Rd. when the driver began to flee.
Officials say the driver drove through yards between two homes in a subdivision on Mt. Pleasant Rd. before he and the other passenger exited the vehicle and fled on foot into a wooded area.
21-year-old Leonal Quintana-Beltran, of Nogales, Mexico, was found 10 minutes later and was arrested.
The driver, 18-year-old Gerardo Mendoza-Sanchez, of Phoenix, Arizona, was found several hours later when officers responded to the Mt. Pleasant area after being alerted by residents who saw him walking through another nearby subdivision.
During the pursuits of the subjects in the Nissan, the driver of the tractor-trailer, 60-year-old Eriberto Hernandez-Ortega, of Phoenix, Arizona, was also arrested.
After obtaining search warrants, nine pounds of crystal meth was found inside the Freightliner and five pounds of crystal meth was found inside the Nissan.
All three men were taken to the Vanderburgh County Jail on a $100,000 bond each.
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