A K-9 police dog with the county sheriff’s office sniffed out narcotics in a vehicle after a traffic stop in Paso Robles late yesterday afternoon.
The vehicle was stopped on highway 46 east near Whitley Gardens.
The driver was speeding and the registration was expired. During the traffic stop, K-9 Rooster sniffed around the vehicle and responded to the odor of narcotics. Deputies arrested two Paso Robles women, 30-year-old Prisciliano Cruz Garcia and 27-year-old Laura Ramirez Chavez.
A search of the vehicle turned up a small baggy of suspected cocaine as well as two baggies of pills suspected to be counterfeit hydrocodone. They also found about $1500 in cash. Deputies later conducted a search of the women’s apartment in Paso Robles. That search produced more pills, and about three-quarters of a pound of heroin with a street value of $10,000. They also found $8,000 in cash and “evidence associated with narcotics sales.”
Garcia and Chavez were arrested on drug charges, including possession for sale and transporting/selling a controlled substance. The suspects were released within four hours of being booked at the county jail due to the zero-bail policy.
