How Interstate Drug Dealers get Caught by Police

Stopping and Catching Interstate Drug Dealers who Drive Heroin Across the Country

is easier than you think.  Police look for some telltale signs on the drug trafficker vehicles:

1.  Obscured out-of-state License Plates.  In a recent case handled at Wolfe Legal Services, the driver was not suspected until Police noticed part of the license plate was covered (edited to protect identity).  At the time, the car was not in Ohio.  If the plate were not covered, the car would not have been stopped.

Obscured License Plate Leads to a heroin drug mule interstate traffic stop

2.  Nervousness.  Once Police pulled over the suspected interstate drug mule / dealer because the State was covered up, they noticed both drivers were nervous and called for a drug sniffing dog to come to the scene.  The passenger was observed with a "pulsing carotid artery" and shaking hands.

3.  Conflicting Stories / Volunteered Information.  The suspects were separated and then gave different accounts of where they had been and where they are going.  The passenger volunteered information without being asked.

4.  Profiling.  The driver was Hispanic with a white female passenger.  The driver had no valid license and was not a US Citizen.  The vehicle was owned by someone who was not in the car.

5.  License Plate Readers.  Many states, law enforcement, and even private companies, private investigators, and repossession agencies use license plate readers to find suspects.  Thousands of plates can be read while the officer is doing something else.

Once the drug sniffing dog arrived to this scene, it immediately smelled drugs under the hood.  Police opened the hood of the suspected interstate drug dealers and could see that some areas under the hood had screw missing and greasy fingerprints.  Upon further inspection, Police found this:

Hidden drug compartment under the windshield Cowling with missing screws

Inside the compartment, Police found this in the car of the heroin drug mule:

Packages of Heroin found in hidden compartment