AUBURN, Calif. — Nearly 50,000 fentanyl pills are off the streets after a traffic stop led to the discovery Monday, Placer County Sheriff's Deputies said.
At 1:35 p.m. Monday, deputies were conducting a traffic stop on a car on eastbound I-80 at the Maple Street exit in Auburn. Sheriff K-9 Ruger, trained in narcotics detection, alerted his handler to the driver's side of the car.
After searching, deputies say they found five aluminum foil-linked packages vacuum sealed with plastic.
Parts of the packages exposed blue-green M30 tablets, commonly known as "fentanyl pills," deputies said.
Each bag contained around 10,000 pills, amounting to 50,000 pills in total.
A search of the entire car and suspects also led deputies to just over $1,000 in cash and four cell phones, authorities said.
The driver, 27-year-old Brigido Lopez-Beltran, and passenger, 32-year-old Joaquin Mardueno, were both arrested and booked into jail on suspicion of possession and sale of narcotics.
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