The Cars Roll by on the Interstate, Sometimes Hundreds of Them

Access #: 517149
Headline: Searching for drug smugglers: Highway teams in Riverside and San Bernardino counties scan the inerstates for drug traffickers
Date: 01/23/00
Day: Sunday
Credit: The Press -Enterprise
Section: A Section
Zone: ALL ZONES
Page: A08
Byline: Raymond Smith
Caption: 1. Mark Zaleski; The Press -Enterprise ; CAUGHT: Sandra Espinoza, 31, cries inside a California Highway Patrol car after being stopped by a CHP drug interdiction team. The Ontario woman was driving with her twin daughters in November when she was arrested on Interstate 15 for suspicion of possessing and transporting heroin. 2. Mark Zaleski; The Press -Enterprise ; SNIFFING FOR DRUGS: Dino, a Chp drug-sniffing German shepherd, clamps down on the Tickle-Me Elmo doll that police say was used to hide 11 ounces of heroin.
Art: PHOTOS
Notes: Sidebar to "Inland drug empire"
Subject: CRIME; NARCOTICS; LAW ENFORCEMENT
Keys: SOURCE NATION; SMUGGLING; METH LABS; METHAMPHETAMINE
Type: SERIES
Length: 18.6

SAN BERNARDINO

The cars roll by on the interstate, sometimes hundreds of them

bumper-to-bumper. Any one might have methamphetamine stashed in a

hidden compartment, stashed in a spare tire or taped inside a gas

tank.

It's up to California Highway Patrol Officer Robert Mendenhall

and his drug-sniffing German shepherd, Dino, to pull the right card

from the deck.

Mendenhall is one of 16 officers from the CHP and other

law-enforcement agencies assigned to highway interdiction teams

organized by the highway patrol. They cruise interstates in

Riverside and San Bernardino counties, stopping drivers for traffic

violations.

Then they look for signs of drug-smuggling and other crimes.

One night in November, temperatures hover just above the freezing

mark as Mendenhall patrols a stretch of Interstate 15 near San

Bernardino.

Mendenhall stops a man from Kansas who is driving through

California after a trip to Arizona. The car was weaving and, with

the low temperatures, Mendenhall wonders why the windows are down

when the driver is wearing a short-sleeved shirt.

The car pulls over.

A beam from Mendenhall's small flashlight reveals that the man's

pupils do not react to light, a possible sign he is high on

methamphetamine . The man explains he is on a natural high from an

unexplained near-religious experience several hours earlier. He

also tells Mendenhall he is fueled by caffeine from gulping coffee

constantly during the trip.

Mendenhall is skeptical, but his suspicions ease a bit when the

man produces a prescription asthma inhaler. The aerosol spray

contains ephedrine, a close chemical cousin to methamphetamine .

Clandestine lab operators can convert ephedrine to

methamphetamine , and the inhaler's effects might mimic some signs

of drug use, Mendenhall says. He sends the man on his way.

Officers look for any kind of illegal drugs, not just

methamphetamine , as well as illegal guns and other contraband.

Shortly after stopping the driver from Kansas, Mendenhall pulls

over a speeding Buick. A short conversation convinces the driver to

let Mendenhall and Dino search the car.

But the woman says her 3-year-old twin daughters will cry without

their toys, a Tickle-Me Elmo doll and a Tweetie Bird purse. In the

near-freezing blackness, the woman walks with the girls -- and the

toys -- to a patrol car and waits inside as Dino's nose hunts for a

drug scent in the Buick. Dino paws and scratches at a spot on the

car's rear floorboard where the toys had lain just moments before.

Officers want the toys, but the woman refuses. She grabs one

daughter, sandwiching the Tickle-Me Elmo between the little girl

and her own body. Officers wrestle the doll away and remove it from

the patrol car.

Outside, Dino lunges immediately. Strong jaws lined with sharp

teeth latch onto the bug-eyed Elmo's torso in a grip that even

Mendenhall has a hard time breaking.

A slit in Elmo's back opens to reveal two plastic bags. Tests

show the bags contain 11 ounces of brown heroin worth about

$70,000, Mendenhall said.

Sandra Espinoza, 31, of Ontario was arrested on suspicion of

possessing heroin for sales, transporting heroin for sales and

child endangerment. She pleaded not guilty in San Bernardino County

Superior Court.

"She didn't care if I got this one," Mendenhall's partner,

Officer Mike Blaine said, pointing to the empty Tweetie-Bird purse.

"She grabbed that Elmo."

Eric Vilchis10/20/2018