During Monday’s snowstorm, an Indiana State Police trooper’s routine traffic stop on Ind. 49 in Valparaiso turned into a major drug trafficking case with the discovery of 11.64 pounds of cocaine, according to police.
Daniel Aguilar Ramirez, 35, of Turlock, Calif., is charged with a Level 2 felony of dealing cocaine.
Ramirez told the trooper that he had recently moved to Knox but had not yet obtained an Indiana driver’s license. A further check found that he was an undocumented immigrant, which led to a detainer being filed by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the Indiana State Police said in a release.
Trooper Logan Hensley at 5:44 p.m. Monday was traveling south on Ind. 49 around the Vale Park Road exit when he spotted a gray Jeep Grand Cherokee, going at an unsafe speed of 60 mph through a one-lane construction zone in icy conditions, a probable cause statement says.
Hensley stated that he followed the vehicle and turned on his lights and siren. The Jeep Cherokee exited onto U.S. 30 and stopped at the bottom of the westbound ramp.
Approaching from the passenger side window, Hensley questioned the driver, identified as Ramirez, who produced a California driver’s license.
Ramirez was apologetic when Hensley told him it was dangerous to drive so fast in the snow and ice. Ramirez said he had owned the Jeep for a couple weeks and, in response to Hensley’s question, said that everything in the vehicle was his, the court record says.
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Hensley asked Ramirez if he had any drugs in the vehicle. Hensley then had his K-9, Kai, sniff around the vehicle’s exterior and the dog signaled that drugs were present in the vehicle, court documents say.
As a result, Hensley searched Ramirez’s Jeep and saw an Amazon box on the back right seat. Inside, there were four 4-by-8-inch brick-like packages, vacuum sealed in plastic.
“I identified its unique packaging to be similar to how large amounts of illegal drugs are trafficked,” Hensley said.
Later, when he took the bricks to the Lowell Post, they field tested positive as cocaine, court records say.
Ramirez is being held in the Porter County Jail.
Jim Woods is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.